While British MPs write books to clear their name or claim the intellectual high ground (Jeffrey Archer aside), French finance minister Bruno Le Maire’s new novel Fugue Américaine is a full-on bonkbuster including lines such as “she wrapped one leg around my waist, clutched her other leg to my ankle and tilted her head back.” Literary critic Alexandre Gefen summed up the Republic’s reaction: “French people can forgive a politician for writing erotic novels, but they can’t forgive a politician for writing them badly.” The following day, rating agency Fitch downgraded France’s sovereign-credit rating from AA to AA-.
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