MAINTENANCE Eliette Abecassis (Jerusalem Post) 
Jerusalem Post "This is the challenge of a lifetime to give proper weight to his father and mother."
MAINTENANCE Eliette Abecassis
Interview by David Reinharc.
Eliette Abecassis had written "My Father" book in which she tried to unravel the mystery of father / daughter. In "A happy event", it demystified, with ferocity, motherhood.
Today, with "Mother and Daughter, a novel", it queries the unique bond that unites two women atypical Sonia Rykiel and her daughter, Nathalie. A story of love, possession, admiration and emancipation. Where seduction, desire is the common thread of the relationship and femininity, a Legacy.
Through the fate of these two women, Eliette Abecassis questioned the mother-daughter relationship, motherhood, the transmission.
is the literary text of this academic year. A discreet and subtle story. Interview
- David Reinharc: You just released a book: "Mother and Daughter, a novel" (Albin Michel). Why did you choose
seamstress Sonia Rykiel and her daughter Natalie to talk about mother / daughter?
- Eliette Abecassis: Because they are two very strong personalities, interesting, important, who had a passionate relationship throughout their lives. Each of its way is fascinating. Sonia is a myth, an icon, a very strong woman. Nathan too, but differently. They represent two versions of the seduction and charm, one by lies and the other by the authenticity and spontaneity. Their history together is a love story about a life filled with violence and complexity as all relationships between mothers and daughters. Because they operate in the world of fashion, seduction, femininity, I wanted to explore that universe to talk about mother-daughter relationships.
Reinharc David: Is there a difference between destiny a couple mother-daughter Ashkenaz (the Rykiel) and Sephardi (the one you form with your mother)?
- Eliette Abecassis: I projected myself through them. Paradoxically, it is a very personal book because I have recreated their history. There are many similarities between mothers and mothers Ashkenazi Sephardi. There really is a figure of the Jewish mother, a mother who is extreme in his love, his symbiotic relationship, she does not want to miss her child. Much has discussed the relationship of the Jewish mother to her son but less of his daughter, and equally strong and terrible. The Jewish mother is a mother and overflowing stifling, and at the same time is entirely in the transmission. It is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Ashkenazi mothers are less likely to demonstrate their love but they are nonetheless all powerful.
- David Reinharc: The relationship between Sonia and Nathalie Rykiel is one of love and hate.
What is the tipping point at which you believe that the mother is no longer the order of protection, even excessive, but the danger?
- Eliette Abecassis: It was when the girl grows up, and it should start building his life and become a wife and mother, as witches or stepmothers in fairy tales, does not let her daughter out of his den, his belly, she prefers to keep her as a slut at home rather than give the dress that will make the woman. There is at the same time of love and rivalry, hatred and violence.
- David Reinharc: There is a scene in your book handover at Café Flore, where the mother withdraws from the company she created to make room for her daughter.
In Judaism, we must "respect" for our parents, literally in Hebrew, give them the "weight" (Kabedi). Sonia Rykiel Is not too much to bear for his daughter?
- Eliette Abecassis: "Honor your father and your mother", because literally, would be "heavy thy father and thy mother." Their weight is heavy. There is a moment where the relationship is reversed and the girl who took care of aging mother. For the girl it is not about killing the mother killing the father, because there's too much guilt and identification. This is the challenge of a lifetime to give the proper weight to his father and his mother.
- David Reinharc: Natalie says she has spent her life trying to be herself, "get out" of his mother in order to exist. Sonia, a very strong personality, she allowed you believe her daughter to escape the deadly repetition of parental history to take his place in the genealogy, a place different from its mother?
-Eliette Abecassis: Sonia sent him everything she could, a family history along with the creativity and the empire she has built from scratch, and now the only group independent fashion family. But it took Nathalie seized power, showing that she was capable, because if the brand continues today thanks to her.
- David Reinharc: How do you think a child should be given weight, recognition, gratitude to his parents, "thank you" to get rid of a love that would close if not him?
- Eliette Abecassis: He must leave the fusional love for himself, to distance to love freely, forgive them. Love them or hate them too, we are still prisoners of their parents. They lend weight to give it the proper weight.
- David Reinharc : You show in your book the rivalry between the work of artistic creation and motherhood.
Can we say that artistic production or maternity are now used as a refuge for women to express their femininity?
- Eliette Abecassis: The literature in fact, for me anyway, an exploration of femininity is exactly what I wanted to do in this book. Motherhood is more difficult, because motherhood is contrary to the image that people have of femininity today where women must be very thin and independent. The relationship between motherhood and femininity has never been problematic.
- David Reinharc: Today, we are very proud to have abolished all traditional hierarchies to speak only the language of the heart.
Are you annoyed by the constant use now "mom" (the "mother" of Kafka, etc..) Doing mention the "moms" they are also mothers?
- Eliette Abecassis: Yes it is a problem that begins very early, and because we have children that tyrants do not respect their parents anymore but they dictate everything. The parents are very distraught today facing the education of their children, who dominate them.
