She passed away at the age of 95. Journalist and novelist Claude Sarraute died at her home, her son Martin Tzara told AFP on Tuesday morning. A woman of letters, a journalist for 35 years at Le Monde, Claude Sarraute was also a pillar of Laurent Ruquier’s television programs and “Big heads” on the radio. For many viewers, she embodied the unworthy granny, falsely ingenuous, who imposed her sense of burlesque and her good words on the sets.
Asked this Tuesday by RTL in the 10 a.m. newspaper, Laurent Ruquier told how the general public had discovered Claude Sarraute thanks to the radio. “She joined me on France Inter in the 90s and it’s been going on for thirty years, finally it lasted,” said the host, who indicated that the novelist could no longer participate in the show in recent years. years.
“A lot of memories come back to me, sorry I have a lot of trouble,” he breathes, his voice broken by emotion. “She was one of the first free women, perhaps more feminist than we imagine. She had so much to tell. “Laurent Ruquier will host this Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. a special program of “Big Heads” on RTL, in tribute to his friend.
Daughter of Nathalie Sarraute
Born on July 24, 1927 in Paris, she was the eldest daughter of one of the great writers of the 20th century, Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999), and the lawyer Raymond Sarraute. The intellectual and serious environment in which she grew up did not prevent her from having a taste for laughter.
“I made my mother laugh until I was 99. I was indelibly cheerful. With a woman like that, it was my only chance to get out of it, right? (…). To compare us is to compare In Search of Lost Time et Pip the Dog. For her, what mattered was that I worked in a newspaper like Le Monde, ”she noted to Liberation.
With a degree in English, she did some theater before embarking on journalism, collaborating with the “Sunday Express”. In 1952, she began to write to Le Monde. She will stay there for 35 years, in the “Shows” then “Television” section and finally by signing an insolent note on the last page, entitled “On the spot” (chronicles gathered in the collection “Say so!”).
The woman of letters had written a book on old age and the end of life released by Flammarion editions in 2019. On this occasion, the daughter of Nathalie Sarraute confided to the Parisian that “old age is death row” .
VIDEO. Claude Sarraute, a fit nonagenarian
Claude Sarraute was married three times, her last husband, the essayist Jean-François Revel died in 2006. She had four children including the senior civil servant Nicolas Revel and the sports journalist Martin Tzara. In 2019, she confided to the Parisian the secret of her energy: “The secret is to have fun, to be interested. Me, I enjoy life to death. I am bulimic. What I want is to be happy. I read, I watch television, I forget the pain. And at 6 p.m., I drink my glass of white wine. »
“Against Youth”
She had joined, in the early 90s, “the Ruquier band”. Unlike many women her age, she was not looking to look younger: “I have lots of wrinkles but it’s not a problem” to go on TV, she assured, saying fight ” against youthism and anti-old racism”. She added mischievously that “her age is her business”.
Claude Sarraute has long held a column for Psychologies magazine and has written several novels, which she described as “clowneries”, as if to apologize for not being at her mother’s level. Among his books are “Hello, Lolotte, it’s Coco”, “Ah! love, always love”, “Sarraute, the girl of the year”, “Dad who? “Say, do you love me?” “, “Say see, Maminette…” or “Beautiful beautiful beautiful”. Ignoring formal formalities, she wrote in spoken style, advocating a futility that aimed to say the essential.
Claude Sarraute, who saw himself living as long as his much admired mother, said in 2014: “Physically, everything is fine… Health problems, we had time to get used to them! And thank you also the progress of medicine! At my age, we are patched up to last as long as possible. “She played, at almost 80 years old, in Catherine Breillat’s film, “An old mistress” (2007).
The columnist was also a member of the honorary committee of the association for the right to die with dignity (ADMD), which defends the freedom of everyone to choose the conditions of their own end of life.
“Our association is losing a fervent activist for the right to die with dignity. We are losing a friend. Thought moved to all his loved ones … “, reacted on Twitter the association.