“How do you conjure up a man whose memories and anecdotes – and aren’t memories anecdotes? – would have upset him or made him angry?” asks Denis Podalydès in L’Ami de la famille, Souvenirs de Pierre Bourdieu, a formative account that is as moving as it is humble.

In L’Ami de la famille, Souvenirs de Pierre Bourdieu, Denis Podalydès recalls his friendship with Emmanuel Bourdieu, the son of the famous sociologiste, through the places, objects, readings and collective actions that accompanied the end of his adolescence and the beginning of his adulthood. This friendship was at once a refuge, a pivot and a springboard for the future.

The shadows and tensions in Podalydès’s family are illuminated by the sociologist’s work on “l’espace social” and Algeria. Bourdieu’s thought has played a key role in the intellectual formation of the actor of the Comédie Française, and the tenderness and gratitude that can be felt from these pages are contagious.

L’Ami de la famille, Souvenirs de Pierre Bourdieu, by Denis Podalydès, éditions Julliard, collection Camera Obscura.
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Miriam Bridenne

After almost two decades of working in publishing, and a few round trips between Paris and New York, Miriam has decided to settle down at Albertine to do what she enjoys most: recommending books she loves. Somehow this also includes taking bizarre pictures for Albertine's social media outlets.

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