In this jubilant nihilistic novel, Mourareau, as a keen observer, draws a vitriolic and uncompromising portrait of a bloodless society. This three-voice novel with its dizzying rhythm, in a language full of brilliant neologisms and diversions, insidiously distils in each of us avenues for reflection and introspection.
In the near future, the world has become pretty much the worst imaginable. Countries are governed like companies listed on the stock exchange, telephones allow themselves scathing judgments about their owners, and the earth has been transformed into a giant, hysterical and uncontrollable reality TV show: everything is going down the drain. Bleu and Rose, anti-Parisian heroes representative of their species in perdition, want to believe that elsewhere, another life is possible. They are—above all—riddled with debts that leave them with no alternative but to flee. So they head for the end of the world: Polynesia. It remains to be seen whether misery is indeed less painful in the sun…
In an apocalyptic atmosphere and with a clever mix of black humor and absurdity, Mourareau paints us a satire as politically incorrect as it is disturbing and jubilant. But, as the author writes, “there is something in the joke that one could not seriously assume”, and that is what this text is all about: we laugh but we grit our teeth too. Bleu and Rose, the fruits of a putrescent society, are hateful and moving. Perhaps because it is impossible not to recognize ourselves a little in these two characters, we who all carry within us, somewhere, the possibility of a fall.
With Méridien zéro, Mourareau delivers nothing less than a novel about the decline of humanity, and this tomorrow. A funny, cynical and frightening literary UFO, to be taken at the 36th degree... or not.
