Biography

Wepler Prize.
A monkey smuggled into a retirement home, old aged people getting attached to it, the police unable to recover the animal, the public scandal, uncontented families, and the fragrance of joy that builds up with that of the blood. And desire, and love, intact, at the very edge of death. So what is Rhésus? Chimpanzee or bonobo?
Political animal or a distorted human? Combatant or fucker? Resistant or passer? In the Iliad, he appeares through the features of the savior promised to Troy, he is the warrior king who died too soon to fight: another of Ulysse's tricks. Even then, at the origins of all,
he passes almost unnoticed. Will we be able to recognize him this time? (Back Cover)
"In the style of a macabre comedy, Helena Marienské forces us to reflect on the fate of the elderly, the "social ghetto where they are confined since the late twentieth century", to "gérontosadiques" to the lengthening of life and to the consequences of a "generational organization going bankrupt". Subjects seldom treated and that the author deals with with such warmth, humor, wholesome culture and a sense of mystery." (Florence Noiville, Le Monde 24th August 2006) "Hilariously funny, Helena Marienské's first book explodes all beliefs of the contemporary novel: We are in a hospice, a nursing home, anything you want to call it, and yet it looks more like the Tontons Flingueurs becoming spirited grandfather gunslingers, gamblers, jokers, nymphomaniacs, bisexual zoophiles, revolutionary ... in one word: free. The hospice in Rhésus is certainly a utopia that of a hair-raising freedom, where its bedridden patients will eventually shake the Vth Republic force whichs puts all conventions to question: " The greatness of France was sabotaged. It was "kärcheriser". In this image, Rhésus is a stronghold from where one fights against the dictates, including the literary. Héléna Marienské refuses any blinding adherence to reality and self, and seems to distribute in passing, some blows to the literary conventions of the moment. A writer, a true one, does not see himself as an idol, does not idolize himself nor give himself to idolizing. Especially, as shown by Marienské, death is never far away in the life of a human, giving to all his pretentions a sense of ridicule that few, however, seem to avoid. A writer works with an awareness of this, the ridiculous and the absurd, the gap between himself and things - even if it hurts. This pain, Marienské has made into a very, very funny novel, and far more subversive than lamentations." (Nelly Kaprièlian, Les Inrockuptibles 22 August 2006)