“THE LIST OF MY DESIRES” by Grégoire Delacourt

My late father used to buy a lottery ticket every week, hoping that he would win a car. He never won.

Once in a while, I buy a lottery ticket myself, thinking of my father’s habit.
I don’t believe that I will win anything, but every time I buy a ticket, my husband and I have this little imagination game. We have to tell each other what we are going to do with the money IF we will win. (Since the money we earn from our professions has to be spent rationally on things that are functional and necessary, while in our imagination game, the money can be spent on superficial things as well.)

In Grégoire Delacourt’s book, his heroin writes the list of her desires after she won the lottery, yet, before she cashes the cheque: << eighteen million five hundred and forty-seven thousand, three hundred and one euros and twenty-eight centimes.>>
It is fascinating to see how her desires change from her wish list (which includes a Chanel bag and Hermès scarves) to the list of things she needs (a new microwave, and a bread knife).

This is the speech given by the lottery representative to the winner:

” – Because when you have money, she explains, all of a sudden people love you. Total strangers love you. They’ll ask you to marry them. They’ll send you poems. Love letters. Hate letters. They’ll send you pictures of an ill-treated dog and ask you to be its godmother, its saviour.

– Do you have children? I nod. Well, they won’t just see you as a mother now, they’ll see you as a rich mother and they’ll want their share.

– And then there’s your husband; let’s suppose he has an ordinary kind of job. He’ll want to give it up and devote himself to managing your fortune, I say yours because from now on it will be his as well since he loves you, oh yes, he’ll tell you how much he loves you in the days and months to come, he’ll spoil you, he’ll lull you into a false sense of security, he’ll poison you.”

For me, it was heartbreaking to read about what happens to the family when they have the <<bad luck>> to win the biggest lottery prize.

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013