Éternité à coudre par Esther Tellermann (review)

Chanson douce est l’excellent roman d’une auteure de talent qu’on lira et pour le plaisir et dans nos cours. Mount Allison University (NB, Canada) Mark D. Lee Tellermann, Esther. Éternité à coudre. Nice: Unes, 2016. ISBN 978-2-877-04174-4. Pp. 96. A powerful tension of opposites emerges in this continuation of Tellermann’s quest to render “un lyrisme intime du monde” (unpaginated). At once personal and universal, elusive and demanding, viscerally attached to matter and aware of the possible void through which poetic speech must surge, this collection reprises with a sure touch her penchant these last twenty years for the slightest columns of words ‘sewn’ together to draw us toward a shared future. At the same time, it distills the techniques and vision that have won her acclaim. Visually, the tight, zigzagging paratactic structures heighten each poem’s impact, drawing the eye down along the lines of one to four words and their spacing and indentations, immersing us in a restrained, sensual, purposeful unfolding of language. Aurally, the interplay of sound and silence flows expressively within the poems and from page to page, further accentuated by consonance as well as by intriguing linguistic juxtapositions, as in the opening lines:“Nuque / à peine / nous nous pétrissions / de mots et / d’absence.” Thematically, emphasis on the interpersonal is a particular strength. Whether read as a discursive exchange addressed to a loved one, as an exploration of affect’s constructive power and semantic charge, or as a poetic-dialogic expansion of time and space in view of crafting an‘eternity,’ there is much astute intersubjective questioning to assimilate, especially as regards how these threads intermingle and encourage us to discover world and self through fine-tuned words. For instance, the “tu” of the beginning—“tu / disais rien est / la racine”—evolves into part of an inquisitive, corporally and affectively intertwined “nous”: “Voulut / fleurir et / grimper en dedans / puis se coucher / dans les lavandes / et les puits”; “Peut-être nous / construisions / le souvenir / des brises / des postures.” The closing lines place the lyrical ‘I’ in a moment of lingering matinal energy—“l’erre / qu’efface le midi”— that leads haltingly into a remembered site of renewal, one of gestural offerings to what could be considered a collective Other with whom to tentatively establish a foundation for living and for potential glory: “l’autre côté du monde / où je ne pus / voir / mais me couche entre / / vous.” Much of the pleasure to be had in reading this volume stems from the range and cohesiveness of the condensed, elliptical statements made. One feels Tellermann’s usual reach into the problematics of history as well as human duration amid “les rumeurs,” but also a focused, noteworthy sensitivity to the Other as participant in the elliptical, ambiguous, cyclical progression “vers une impossible consolation.” It is rare indeed that so little can mean so much, 266 FRENCH REVIEW 91.2 Reviews 267 including as to motifs and autocitations that astutely confront loss and longing while reenergizing poetic speech. An evocative reflection on individual experience that conveys the spiritual longings and literary reconfigurations of our time. Southwestern University (TX) Aaron Prevots Tremblay, Michel. Conversations avec un enfant curieux. Montréal: Leméac, 2016. ISBN 978-2-7609-1293-9. Pp. 149. Quoi de plus rafraîchissant et de plus amusant que les questions et les observations naïves, parfois saugrenues, à l’occasion cocasses, d’un enfant à la veille ou dans les premiers temps de l’âge de raison? Mais aussi rien de plus embêtant qu’un enfant tenace qui pose des questions à tout le monde, à tout propos, à tout bout de champ et qui poursuit chaque réponse par un sempiternel pourquoi! L’auteur septuagénaire des Conversations revit dans ce recueil des moments privilégiés de son enfance et les présente comme des clichés littéraires décousus (des instantanés, selon le mot sous-titré de l’auteur) qui manifestent en quelques répliques ou en quelques pages l’esprit, le parler, les goûts, les préoccupations, les coutumes du petit peuple montréalais des années 1940 et 1950. Bien sûr, on y retrouve les questions...