Bernard-Henri Lévy

Since the launch in the U.S. of LEFT IN DARK TIMES: A STAND AGAINST THE NEW BARBARISM on September 15 (see newsletter of September 18, 2008), Bernard-Henri Lévy has traveled to most major American cities to meet enthusiastic readers, give sold-out lectures, and sign hundreds of books.
Invariably, the author was welcomed by crowds who, as the most important presidential election of their history approaches, are starved for a better understanding of the left and the future of universal values, both in Europe and in their own country. Each visit included several radio interviews on both public (NPR) and commercial radio. People were hoping for insight and inspiration, and that’s just what they got! Each event, whether at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco or the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, ended with over a hundred people standing in line to have their copy of LEFT IN DARK TIMES signed and in the hope that BHL would answer “just-one-quick-question-please”!… The organizers, wary of a chaotic, never-ending signature session, emphatically interjected—almost barking at times!!—that, no, sorry BHL will not take any more questions…. Apologies to all…

But let’s back up a bit. On September 20 the revered New York Times Book Review, which had infamously published a review of AMERICAN VERTIGO by radio satirist Garrison Keillor, this time gave Vanity Fair columnist and intellectual Christopher Hitchens two full pages of the Review to discuss LEFT IN DARK TIMES. Hitchens gives a serious and close reading of the “highly absorbing” book:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/books/review/Hitchens-t.html .

Damian Da Costa, in a passionate review in The New York Observer, calls BHL “a real-deal philosopher” and calls upon himself and his readers to “put on our thinking caps and review the principles of Bernard-Henri Lévy’s political thought.” He pointedly concludes/dismisses BHL’s detractors [j’hésite entre les deux formules!]: “Whether or not you agree with him on Mr. Sarkozy’s neoliberalism, or the Palestinians, or the nature of terrorism, you will be convinced of this: Ideas matter to him, even more than a sharp suit.”
http://www.observer.com/2008/arts-culture/le-r-ve-gauche

At the invitation of the Jewish Community Center of Washington, D.C., BHL gave the prestigious Gerald L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture as part of The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival. As 300 men and women filled the amphitheatre, the atmosphere was electric: it was Day One of the financial crisis. From that moment of the tour on, BHL will often be asked how his assessment of the left sheds light on the origins of this dire economic situation. Many Republicans will reject President Bush’s bailout plan and even call it socialism. BHL, the leftist intellectual, expands quite a bit, to his readers’ delight, on the double meaning of liberalism and how the left and the law of the market are not only not a contradiction but how, with regulations, it is still the path toward prosperity and the most efficient and reliable guardian of democracy.

In Seattle, BHL hijacks his own promotional tour by giving a rousing speech at the Town Hall in support of Senator Barack Obama. At Powell’s in Portland and then at Books and Books in Miami, two of the most famous independent bookstores in America, the crowds standing in line for signature exceed the size of those for AMERICAN VERTIGO. In San Francisco, before delivering the Annual Pritzker Family Lecture at the Taube Center for Jewish Life—given last year by Amos Oz—BHL is picked by Googleplex as an ideal author to be videotaped for a 55-minute interview for Authors@Google, the innovative series of interviews of famed authors, such as Salman Rushdie, Joseph Stiglitz, and Noam Chomsky:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGO1kMj1u1U .
In Los Angeles, BHL engages in a public conversation with media-star Arianna Huffington, publisher of the most widely read and very sharp online newspaper, the Huffington Post. The event was, needless to say, sold out within a few days of the announcement!…

LEFT IN DARK TIMES, as I have been told repeatedly throughout the tour, is from an American perspective a very timely book. As Tamara Handelsman, the Founding Chairperson of the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival said to an audience that then loudly applauded in approval: “Thank you for making difficult but oh-so important concepts understandable for everyone, even to me!” BHL’s American readers are decidedly very eager and grateful, and the author’s energetic presence surely rewards their curiosity and interest!