“Le Singulier Monsieur Tout-le-Monde” is a novel that likes mixing genres, intertwined with both fantasy and reality.

It’s hero, Jean Pratou, is an ordinary hero, a little man of no consequence, anchored in a gnawing solitude, who will suddenly experience the extraordinary and make the rest of mankind experience it as well. But when magic opens it’s doors to the common man, what is the price to pay ?

This is what Jean Pratou will discover, at his own expense...

A novelist to watch !

With this remarkable first novel, Dorine Hollier opens the doors to her fabulous world. We’re delighted by her theatrical influences, her colourful writing and her wonderful sense of setting. And what a poetic story it is ! When’s the next novel ? This is a writer I want to continue to follow very closely.

Sumary

«Le Singulier Monsieur Tout-le-Monde» tells the story of Jean Pratou, a small accountant in his forties totally insignificant. He was abandoned at an early age by his mother — an embittered singer who never wanted to reveal his father’s his father’s name. He spent his entire youth haunting the halls of the Louvre and, by copying pieces of numerous works of art,en invented for himself an imaginary ideal woman whom he named Josette.

One day he realises that his hands, which until then had been completely normal, have the power to renovate everything he touches.

He was amazed; he didn’t understand what was happening to him. He had known nothing but abandonment, humiliation and loneliness in his life, but suddenly found himself in the media spotlight. He becomes Midas Gray. His gift has earned him the adulation of some, the hatred and jealousy of others.

The young woman — anything but distinguished ! — whom he had fallen in love with because, by the merest chance, she had the features of his Josette, had until then openly mocked him. Suddenly she sees how she can benefit from the mysterious gift of this fabulous Midas Gray...

A host of often hilarious twists and turns punctuate this tale, in which the cross between King Midas and Dorian Gray is the exact opposite of the egotistical dandy portrayed by Oscar Wilde, but there is one thing in common between the Irish writer and the author of Midas Gray: elegance of style.

Long Summary

This is the story of Jean Pratou, an ordinary hero, an insignificant forty year old accountant, son of an unknown father and a Parisian opera diva. As his mother refuses to reveal his father’s identity, Jean fantasizes an ideal father, imagining him as a super-hero/ dragon hunter/ genius. At an early age, his mother chooses to abandon him in the arms of a succession of nannies, to pursue her career on the international stage. Always alone, Jean falls in love with the Louvre museum, and spends his youth copying the numerous works of art he encounters and creating an imaginary ideal woman he names Josette. He draws Josette everywhere, on the walls of his room, in his cupboards, on every support, placing her in the different paintings he has learned to copy. He becomes totally obsessed by her. One day, his mother, tired of having to pay for nannies, sends him away to live with a distant uncle and cousins in St-Etienne, a small provincial town. Jean suffers the hell of abuse from his horrible, mean, violent cousins, until one day, they all die in a car accident, leaving him sole proprietor of their house. He starts working as an accountant in his dead uncle’s company and leads a quite little life with a three legged cat named Robert, colonizing his uncle’s house with drawings of Josette. Always a loner, despised and mocked by his colleagues, Jean only has one friend: Sehtou, the guy who brings the mail: a young Indian with mental deficiencies who was saved from a dump heap in Kerala and adopted by a French couple.

One day, much to Jean’s surprise, the mail is late. There is no sign of Sehtou. And all of a sudden, Jean hears the creaking wheels of the mail chariot and discovers who is pushing it: A beautiful, though very vulgar, young woman who is the spitting image of the Josette of his dreams ! It’s as if she had detached herself from the paintings of his walls ! He immediately falls hopelessly in love with her and imagines a thousand ways of seducing the one he has always waited for. Of course, she despises him and looks at him as if he was transparent. As a last desperate move, he follows her to the office canteen to offer her a gigantic bouquet, and declare his love to her, in front of all his colleagues. The result is a horrific public humiliation, as mean Josette makes fun of him and his ridiculous bouquet. He walks away in a state of shock, still carrying the flowers and goes back home where he sleeps for a whole week without waking up. Robert the cat pulls him out of his bed by breaking the vase containing the now wilted flowers that used to be Josette’s bouquet. And then, an amazing thing happens: As he picks the dead flowers from the floor, they magically revive to their full splendor. Jean soon discovers his amazing new power: everything he touches rejuvenates and recovers it’s original appearance. The broken down staircase of his building is instantly repaired, even Robert the cat recovers his fourth leg under Jean’s fingertips. Jean cannot believe what is happening to him. He is at first stupefied, then horrified, then amazed. He finds a way of protecting his hands from rejuvenating everything by inventing aluminum gloves, which isolate his unwilling subjects and objects from unwanted operations.

From this day on, Jean who has never known anything but abandon, humiliation and solitude, becomes an overnight sensation. First of all at the office, where all his colleagues discover his incredible powers and suddenly become his “best friends” when he turns their old objects, computers and appliances into new ones. And then by Josette who asks him to apply his hands to her face, immediately erasing all her wrinkles. Sensing the lucrative possibilities of such a gift, she organizes expensive “touching sessions” for all her girl friends and pockets all the gains.

Seeing the growing attention Jean is getting from the local press, Josette finally accepts to be his love interest... at her own terms. But love is blind and Jean has always been so naive. He cannot imagine the vulgarity, meanness and wickedness of his “ideal woman” and convinces himself of her sincerity and love .

Jean’s amazing gift soon hits the national and international press and television, transforming his original invisibility into a media circus. He is wanted everywhere ! They rename him Midas Gray— for King Midas and Dorian Gray— because it soon becomes obvious that each beneficial touch Midas executes is making him age prematurely at the speed of light, bringing him closer to his death. Where magic is concerned, there is always a prize to pay, and although he knows this fact, Midas relentlessly continues to operate, obsessed by his new found celebrity and the apparent respect he is getting from the love of his life.

As time goes by, the rapidly aging Midas begins to understand the importance of his origins. After an immensely successful appearance in a television talk show, where he is considered as a kind of super hero Guru, he decides to renew with his estranged mother. He soon finds her Parisian address and, bursting with emotion, rings the bell. She has become an old diva without a voice, abandoned by all the opera fans who used to worship her. Midas is appalled by her croaky voice, so far from the divine and exceptional tones he remembered from his childhood lullabies.

She of course doesn’t recognize this middle aged man who claims to be her son. But Midas, who has never had any kind of recognition from his mother, needs her to be proud of him. As he touches all her beautiful antique furniture and precious 18th century objects, transforming them in new and glittery horrors, she begs him to stop. Midas then asks her for an ultimate present: to reveal his father’s name. She finally accepts to do so and as Midas, profoundly moved, takes her in his arms, she becomes for a second the mother he never had. Until suddenly, he puts his hands around her throat. For one minute, it seems as though he will strangle her. But as he leaves, closing the door behind him, he hears her wonderful singing voice, once again filling the room...

Midas is thrilled to have the opportunity of introducing Paris to his provincial Josette. And first and foremost, he wants her to know his favorite place on earth: The Louvre Museum . He even dares to replace the Samothrace Victory’s broken head and arms, by caressing her stone body. The whole Louvre museum is in turmoil and chases Midas and Josette out of the Louvre.

Everything seems to work out fabulously for Midas Gray... except reality is quite another thing. The industries who have built their economy on programmed obsolescence don’t really appreciate this strange “messiah” who will surely be the ruin of their companies if every object he touches becomes new again. It means the end of profit, of overconsumption, the basis of modern day economics ! If some people think that Midas is the savior of humanity, part of this humanity think he is public enemy number one ! Midas has to go into hiding. Josette betrays him, selling his whereabouts to the head of a cosmetics company and Midas is kidnapped and delivered to the trans humanist scientist hired by the cosmetics company. His obsession has always been to discover the key to eternal youth, so he wants to analyze Midas’s magical powers in a scientific way. He starts by programming to cut off his hands, the sources of his power. Midas miraculously escapes by touching the man until he rejuvenates to the size of a fœtus and plunges it into a formaldehyde flask !

As he escapes,Midas discovers Josette’s journal, which he had inadvertently put in his coat pocket. He finally sees her true nature as she reveals her sad violent origins, the abuse she has always suffered from men from an early age. He begins to understand the elements which have transformed her into this betraying monster. His sadness is overwhelming but still, his love for her is unconditional . He knows what to do. As he surprises her packing her suitcases in her Parisian hotel room, she is convinced that he is going to kill her. But instead, he makes sweet love to her, and with the power of his caresses, turns her back into the fourteen year old innocent girl she used to be before she was tainted by the evil of abusive men.

Knowing she can never love him as he loves her, he then offers her the ultimate sacrifice of releasing her from his love.

From then on, Midas who is forty years old but now looks seventy five, becomes obsessed by the idea of finding his father. He has a name: Lord Honeyfield. He soon proudly discovers that his father is one of the most renowned oncologists in Europe and that his works on a universal cure for cancer are of the utmost importance. His quest leads him to Honeyfield Manor, in Scarborough, a little town in Yorkshire, England. As everybody worldwide, Baroness Colmar Honeyfield, his father’s wife, has heard of his incredible powers and is thrilled to invite him in. Once a dazzling beauty, she is now an eccentric and extremely curvaceous seventy five year old patron and collector of the arts. Although Midas keeps asking for his father, the Baroness evades the subject and never answers his questions . Instead, she invites him and a roomful of eccentric aristocrats to a very strange ceremony: “The Amazing Renaissance of Lady Honeyfield”. Midas then understands that he has been trapped into performing the Baroness’s resurrection, her ultimate masterpiece. She wishes to recover her former beauty and figure, and above all, her virginity, which will be offered in auction to the richest bid from her admirers . This is the condition for her to reveal the whereabouts of Midas’s father. Midas accepts the deal and proceeds to an amazing and exhausting show which totally renews the Baroness to her previous splendor .The crowd of eccentrics is delighted, but this session has tremendously aged Midas, leaving him totally exhausted. He now looks eighty.

A deal being a deal, the Baroness reveals to Midas that his father suffers from Alzheimer’s and is now in Switzerland, a resident of an experimental village destined for Alzheimer’s special patients.This great man who could have saved humanity, who was on the verge of finding the ultimate cure for cancer, had been betrayed by his own exceptional mind ! The Baroness understands that Midas is on the verge of exhaustion, she doesn’t even know if he will be able to endure the travel to Switzerland, but she also persuades Midas that he owes mankind this sacrifice. He is the only one capable of renewing Lord Honeyfield’s neurons, in order to let this once great mind find the cure.

Midas accepts, but before he leaves for this ultimate journey, he knows he has to go back to St Etienne to put his affairs in order. He reaches to his only true friend Sehtou and tells him that he will be his unique heir.

On his train trip to Switzerland, Midas meets a group of holy men from the four main religions. They are going to a peace congress in Geneva . Midas, who has always wondered why this incredible gift has been put into his hands, asks them, as holy and wise men, if they have an answer as to why he has been thus “chosen”. Who is he to deserve this amazing though terrible opportunity in the vast specter of Creation ? Of course, none of the holy men have an answer...

He none the less helps each of the holy men by promising to renew items of their religion: for the catholic priest, an incomplete parchment is immediately recreated, revealing incredible informations about Christ, For the Muslim Imam, Midas promises to reconstitute the six hundred steps leading to the Hira Grotto, where thousands of pilgrims go each year to celebrate the revelation of the Prophet.

The Rabbi asks him to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. The Tibetan Lama tells him that he has nothing to ask as he prefers to give to others. He hands him a little piece of paper where a mantra is inscribed.

Midas, totally exhausted, feels that his last moments on earth have arrived. He finally arrives in Switzerland, in Wiedlisbach, home of the revolutionary “Alzheimer’s Village”. Doctor Noos’s original concept is to recreate each of the patient’s youth, through their habitations and way of life. Alzheimer’s patients forget present memory but have an incredible recollection of the past. Being in their previous elements soothes them and slows down the evolution of illness. As this village is very exclusive, Midas has to find a way of reaching his father. His plan is to pass as his father’s twin brother, whom he hasn’t seen in ages. As he now seems to be eighty five years old, Doctor Noos is bound to believe him. He will then ask to be left alone with Lord Honeyfield and proceed to his renewal. Doctor Noos leads Midas to a small building named “Laboratory”. Trembling with emotion, he gets ready to meet the mysterious progenitor he fantasized about throughout his childhood. They enter a large amphitheater, where an old man in a white lab coat is standing perfectly still, in front of a huge blackboard devoid of any inscription. As Midas approaches closer to his father, he gasps with surprise: He looks exactly like him, they might as well be identical twins. The only difference is that his father’s eyes are completely lifeless, as if no thought could come through.

Doctor Noos leaves the two men together. Profoundly moved, Midas takes his father in his arms, touches him . At first, nothing happens and Midas wonders if his gift is going to let him down at the last moment. He tries again. And suddenly, he sees his father’s intelligence come back to life. Slowly, magically, his father turns into a healthy forty year old man . At the same time Midas falls down, totally exhausted. He uses his last breath to tell his father who he is, but of course he doesn’t believe this apparently senile old man. As a last gesture, Midas pulls a folder from his pocket containing a letter explaining who he is and his incredible adventure as well as his father’s old medical notes for the cure of cancer. He smiles watching his father discover the whole thing and dies in his arms. “It’s not everyday that a son brings his father to life...”

When Doctor Noos comes back to the laboratory, he stops in his tracks as he notices the blackboard, now filled with mathematical formulas and equations . The next thing he notices is a forty year old man, crouching next to the body of a very old man who Doctor Noos thinks is Lord Honeyfield. The old man is holding a piece of chalk in his curled up hand. The young man introduces himself as Lord Honeyfield’s son . He tells Doctor Noos that just before he took his last breath, his father had had a sudden attack of brilliance and written his findings on the blackboard.

Doctor recognizes the importance of such a discovery and runs out of the building to call the press, as young Lord Honeyfield whispers in his dead son’s ears: “Everything Midas touches turns into gold”.

An eight year old little girl runs along the alleys of the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. She is followed by an elegant young woman named Josette. They stop in front of a tomb inscribed with the name “Midas Gray”. Josette puts new flowers in the vase and gathers the old wilted ones. As she does so, she drops a dead rose on the floor. As her little girl picks it up, it becomes a beautiful Baccara rose.