In ordinary newspapers, obituaries respect certain customs. “Hara-Kiri” then “Charlie Hebdo” were not ordinary newspapers. And from 1969 to 2013, Cavanna, who was basically their Pope Francis, practiced the funeral oration there like the rest: as a free man, who did not give a damn about conventions as much as contradicting them (he knew too well that “ bullshit always looks for the non-conforming, provided that it is the non-conforming of everyone”). The first-class burials collected in “The Last One Who Remains Will Smash All The Widows” show this well. The title alone is pure Cavanna: a truly modest phrase, designed to hide her tears at Reiser’s disappearance.
Cavanna, come back, they’ve gone mad!
“What made us laugh, Cavanna”
That’s what they are, Cavanna necros. Like nowhere else. Those of a rebel who hated death enough to demand, in “Stop-Crève” (also reissued by Wombat, 176 p., 17 euros), that biologists get to work to “kill death”. Those of a poet, above all, who knew how to make words crackle, in a fireworks display that resurrects an entire era. Here, a scathing requiem for “little father Franco, executioner of Spain and execration of the world” ; there, necro “grouped” (“we will give you a price”) for Malraux, Gabin, Queneau & Calder; and there, song to tell Mitterrand how disappointing he was (“Mr. President/I’m writing you a letter/That you may read/Now that you have time”).
But nothing beats paying tribute to friends: Fournier, Gébé, Coluche, Choron, Topor or Doisneau. Often short texts, because the pain suffocates their author; ridiculously beautiful texts, beautiful to cry. “What made us laugh, Cavannawrote in turn our dear Delfeil de Ton on the death of his dear Cavanna, on January 29, 2014. Here is one who will not have left humor, on leaving, in the state in which it had found it on arrival. (…) He will not have buried us all. Damage. It is he who would have stuffed the necros. » Nine years later, this eulogy serves as a preface to the book. Cavanna didn’t steal it.
“Die, Ducon! », the will of CavannaThe last one left will fuck all the widowsby Cavanna Wombat, 224 p., 20 euros.
