THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is reported to be furious about a book by one of his own UMP insiders, depicting him as a vengeful, sexually manipulating tyrant.Marie-Cécile Guillaume's novel, "The Monarch, His Son, His Fief," is causing a row within France's conservative ranks, for her lightly fictionalized tale about Mr Sarkozy's blinding thirst for power.
The book, to be published on June 14, fleshes out acts of "political violence," including threats and "back-stabbing," by a Sarkozy-based character and his entourage, which Ms Guillaume observed while working as cabinet director for Patrick Devedjian, a UMP legislator in the wealthy Paris suburb of the Hauts-de-Seine - Mr Sarkozy's electoral heartland.
Mr Devedjian, who has had strained relations with Mr Sarkozy since he lost out on a government post in the former administration, is described as a heroic figure opposite a self-obsessed, twitching "Rocky" and "The Monarch".
Ms Guillaume has said the book includes real dialogue and has not denied the identity of her fictional characters in interviews. » | Devorah Lauter, Paris | Friday, June 22, 2012
