Public Enemies

Bernard-Henri Lévy and Michel Houellebecq were, for years, two of the most reviled figures in French public life. Lévy was cast by the press as a rich, vain, self-promoting moralist. Houellebecq, author of The Elementary Particles, was branded a racist, a misogynist and an obsessive about sex. Public Enemies is the book that came out of an exchange of letters between these two apparent adversaries, which began in private and grew into a shared, personal reflection on their lives and work.

The letters range freely and often with real bite. Both men call themselves whipping boys, and they argue over whether they secretly court disgrace or are driven by a desperate wish to be liked. Lévy, the author of Barbarism with a Human Face, praises heroism in the face of tyranny. Houellebecq describes himself as someone who would "fight little and badly." For Lévy, life does not truly "live" unless he is writing, while Houellebecq says his work leaves him so nervously drained that it takes several bottles of alcohol to recover.

Not everything is combative. The two also write with surprising tenderness about their families and about whether God exists. Out of the sparring, an unlikely common ground emerges, along with Lévy's confidence that in the end, "it is we who will come out on top."

First a bestseller in France and elsewhere, the book appears here in English translation. It suits readers who enjoy sharp, provocative argument and who like watching two strong literary personalities test each other.