"Le cas Ajar" became headline news in France with the publication of Ajar's first book, Gros-Câlin, in 1974; a year later he refused the Prix Goncourt for his second, La Vie devant soi. Both books were almost unanimously praised by the critics, but most reviews began: Who is Emile Ajar?…

[His third book, Pseudo, later attributed to Romain Gary], on one level, is the result of the author's finally agreeing to reveal at least some "facts" about himself. He writes it in the first person, as Paul Pavlowitch, one of the names he answers to in private life…. He describes, from the point of view of the quarry, the manhunt he was subjected to; he tells what it is like to be told that you don't exist, that you are "pseudo". He gives what is ostensibly an account of his love-hate relationship with his ever helpful cousin/uncle...