FEB. 2024

The beautiful word
«gratitude»

Inquisitive and free-spirited, intellectual Pierre Assouline shares his personal reflections: gratitude, in word and deed.

One day, while in Jerusalem for a family ceremony, Olympic swimmer Alfred Nakache suddenly disappeared without a trace. Twenty-four hours later, he reappeared. As his nephews and nieces immediately pestered him with questions asking where he had been, he simply replied: «In Bethlehem». When they insisted on knowing more, he clarified: «Just to find a priest I had known during the war. Once, in the camp, he gave me a piece of bread. I wanted to tell him I was alive and say thank you.»

Each time I recall this dialog, I wonder what gratitude might look like in ordinary life, especially in the cultural circles I most generally frequent. Then I remember this…

One evening in October 1999, just as my morning show on France Culture was wrapping up, I heard the news of the death of writer and playwright Nathalie Sarraute. Everything was turned upside down. Find another guest. Convince them to get up that early. Isabelle Huppert would have been ideal. I tried around 11 pm. She picked up the phone and didn’t hesitate for a moment before replying: «You can count on me.» The next day, a few minutes before 7 o’clock, she arrived at the studio in her pajamas under her big coat and sneakers. Being claustrophobic, she couldn’t stand the thought of the elevator, so having climbed the eight double floors of the Maison de la Radio in Paris – i.e. all 16 floors – she had to catch her breath before giving her personal account of the grande dame, delivering a sharp analysis of her world. She hadn’t performed in any of Sarraute’s plays, but she was an avid reader, feeling connected to the playwright by her own habit of reading the works aloud to herself. Then, without even being asked, she took her Pléiade edition out of her pocket and read some excerpts. As I walked back to the staircase to thank her warmly for her time, she simply said: «She gave me so much, it was the least I could do in return.»

Gratitude, one of the most beautiful words in the French language.

Author of some 30 books, Pierre Assouline is a journalist, novelist, biographer and teacher at Sciences Po Paris, where he holds the Karen and Michel Reybier Writer-in-Residence Chair. He is a member of the Académie Goncourt and was awarded the Prix de la Langue Française in 2007.

This article is an excerpt from La Réserve Magazine N° 30 by Michel Reybier Hospitality, which you can consult online here.