> Dalhousie French Studies, Vol. 55 (Summer 2001), pp. 127-141
> Nicolas (Amazon) : https://www.amazon.fr/gp/customer-reviews/RCT9B17JR18JZ?ref=pf_vv_at_pdctrvw_srp
> L'Express (Delphine Peras) : https://www-lexpress-fr.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.lexpress.fr/culture/livre/gro...
> [PDF] : https://curis.ku.dk/portal/files/132295532/Un_picaro_m_taphysique._CURIS.pdf
> Critiques Libres : http://www.critiqueslibres.com/i.php/vcrit/5826
> Lecture / Ecriture : http://www.lecture-ecriture.com/15-Gros-c%C3%A2lin-Romain-Gary
> Bibliographie : https://www.librarything.fr/catalog.php?view=Joop-le-philosophe&author=garyr...
> Voir un extrait : https://books.google.fr/books?id=cDvRYjMC2FEC&hl=fr&printsec=frontcover&...

> Fable humoristique et premier roman de Romain Gary sous le pseudonyme d’Emile Ajar, Gros-Câlin est le récit labyrinthique d’une solitude, l’histoire d’un homme qui se débat dans une vie qu’il voudrait joyeuse. C’est tout à la fois drôle et pathétique, absurde et émouvant. Humain tout simplement. « Gros-Câlin est un texte qui sied à la scène par ses multiples « anneaux » littéraires et ses nombreuses possibilités de modes d’adresses qu’ils offrent aux acteurs et dans lesquels Denis Rey se love ici avec agilité et délicatesse. »
—[Sarah Authesserre – Radio Radio]

> Valentina Chepiga. Les archives de Romain Gary.
In: Genesis (Manuscrits-Recherche-Invention), numéro 29, 2008. pp. 171-173. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/item_1167-5101_2008_num_29_1_1450

Originally published in 1973 and covering a wide range of topics from politics and news items to philosophy, moles and the latest sexual fads, this is a truly hilarious book about a lonely city-dweller with too much love to give who desperately tries to find companionship. Monsieur Cousin, expressing himself in a stream of consciousness narrative, lives and works in Paris. He works in statistics, which he enjoys, he says, because he feels less alone being surrounded with numbers. He's hopelessly in love with Mademoiselle Dreyfus, a beautiful black African woman who works in the same office building, and he frequently daydreams about the two minutes he gets to spend going up the elevator with her every weekday morning, during which time he lets his imagination roam free and imagines that she's too shy to give him a sign that she's secretly in love with him too. At home, he lives and shares his bed with a six foot python, whom he has affectionately called Gros-Câlin (meaning "Big-Snuggle") because one of his favourite things is to have the snake wrap itself around him and squeeze him hard, making Cousin feel like he's being held in a loving embrace. Blondine, a live white mouse—initially purchased as food for the python, but which Cousin couldn't bring himself to sacrifice—has also been adopted as a pet, and he keeps her in the palm of his hand at night to bask in her warmth.

A typical city dweller, Cousin is used to going unnoticed, and some of the funniest moments in the book are when he imagines himself to have meaningful relationships with various people, such as his neighbour Monsieur Tsourès, who's front door he loiters in front of every day for a month, in hopes they will become good friends: « Il ne m’adressait toujours pas la parole mais c’était un peu parce qu’on se connaissait depuis si longtemps qu’on n’avait plus rien à se dire ». "He didn't speak to me, but that might have been because we'd known each other for so long that we didn't have anything left to say to each other". Cousin regularly frequents whores ("les putes"), again to provide him a fix of the affection and physical intimacy that he desperately needs, but all too often leaving frustrated and disgusted at their insistence on washing his privates with too much soap in view of performing the latest sexual fad which he has no interest in. One very funny passage has him visiting a famed ventriloquist for therapeutic purposes; he teaches men to project their voices onto inanimate objects so that they can get verbal reassurances that they are loved and cared for, as needed. Cousin follows these group classes for a while, with the idea that he'll be able to develop an even deeper relationship with Gros-Câlin if he can hold *conversations* with the snake, but he eventually abandons the scheme, not because it's a dumb one, but for some even dumber and irrational excuse.

Even though Cousin assures us throughout he's neither racist nor sexist, political incorrectness abounds. He worries, for example, about how he'll be able to get Mademoiselle Dreyfus to share his life and accept living with Gros-Câlin too (reasoning that most women in their right minds would run screaming as soon as they caught sight of the reptile), yet keeps coming back to the idea that this shouldn't be so hard to achieve, since, being from Africa, the young woman 'ought' to feel a natural kinship with the python. Of course, we can't help but feel sorry for this pathetic man, and the story really is a sad one when one stops to think about it, but Romain Gary's massively neurotic protagonist is so hopelessly deluded, so filled with glaring contradictions, and is such a dreamer at heart, that one can't help but cheer him on. That, combined with Gary's brilliant mastery of the French language and countless puns (which I should hope don't lose too much in the English translation) really makes for a great little book.

The audiobook version—interpreted by François Berland, José Garcia, Xavier Florent, and some 20 others (Publisher: Paris : Livraphone 2005)—is a real little gem too. Cousin is narrated by François Berland, and other performers narrate various characters (his co-workers and neighbours, various people he comes across) as they come up in the story. Most recommended, but in French only. ( )

Dislocation, community, the universal need to be needed and wanted (and Boys' universal ability to rationalise that need in some other way) Gros Calin is a delightful depiction of the frailties of modern urban life. ( )