[en] The edition of the Alexis Curvers’ diary (Liège, 1906-1992) allowed us to discover a man anxious to produce an artwork, a novelist terribly anxious in the face of the blank page. Despite all the reserve and modesty, Curvers admits this anguish : he receives many encouragements bul also suffers the reproaches – even the mockery – of his friends, wife, mentors who believe that he does not produce enough or fast enough. He took a long time to finish his masterpiece, Tempo di Roma, finally published in 1957 and when he died, we will find in his drawers only one unfinic-shed novel, although begun shortly after the publication of tempo di Roma, Les Détours obscurs, whose title could be considered a metaphor for the novelist’s writing process.
