Haute époque par Jean-Yves Lacroix (review)

Reviews 271 place in Lussaud through words. Literature presents the complexity of life as an exile, showing that nobody can prevent him from being part of the place whose beauty moves him yet whose intense violence hurts him at the same time. St. John’s University (NY) Zoe Petropoulou Lacroix, Jean-Yves. Haute époque. Paris: Albin Michel, 2013. ISBN 978-2-226-249807 . Pp. 158. 15 a. In this very odd tale, the protagonist, who is also the first-person narrator, is a second-hand book dealer who becomes obsessed with the life and career of Guy Debord. The latter was a left-wing author, filmmaker, political philosopher, and activist who is thought to have been one of the prime instigators of the May 1968 student riots. The creator of the movement and journal Internationale Situationniste, Debord developed the concept that life in the capitalist society is a constant spectacle where everyone engages in role-playing. He committed suicide in 1994. The narrator makes it his mission to gather all the texts, manuscripts, posters, photographs, and other memorabilia related to his idol. His research on Debord becomes a search for his own identity as he makes discoveries about previously unknown aspects of himself. We also learn about all the dealers and collectors the narrator comes into contact with. He even develops a friendship and business relationship with Debord’s widow Alice after she sells him some of her husband’s papers. These anecdotal episodes are interspersed with quotations from Debord’s writings. The narrator eventually becomes tired of his obsession with his subject. In a solemn ritual he buries whatever material about Debord he has not yet sold on a hill near Nîmes where there once was a troglodyte monastery. The reader is dismayed by the aimlessness of this narrative. We learn a lot about the narrator as well as Debord, but one is left wondering what the purpose of it all might be. The narrative goes back and forth between the present time of the narrating and the past events being recounted. We find out that the narrator suffers from alcoholism as well as sexual impotence. He is periodically hospitalized for the former and as a result becomes addicted to the drugs administered to him. At the end we also discover that he needs a heart bypass. It is difficult, however, to have much sympathy for such a defeatist and self-absorbed individual.When he flushes the toilet at the end of the story, this act seems somehow emblematic of our reaction to what we have just read. One interesting dimension of the novel is all its supernatural elements. There are numerous mentions of angels and references to Dante’s Inferno.The neighbors of the narrator’s shop in Montparnasse refer to him as “le Spectre” (87), and he calls it “mon Vaisseau fantôme” (89). The first chapter tells of Debord’s miraculous apparition before the narrator after the former’s death and while the latter is in jail for drunk driving. The narrator later finds out the details about the circumstances of Debord’s suicide from Debord’s cat Nestor.Also noteworthy are the frequent allusions to Chateaubriand’s biography of Rancé.A friend even says that Debord resembled the seventeenth-century Trappist. University of Denver James P. Gilroy Le Maner, Monique. Un taxi pour Sherbrooke. Montréal: Triptyque, 2013. ISBN 9782 -89031-871-7. Pp. 169. $20 Can. In her sixth novel, this Montreal-based French author continues her exploration of multiple genres and styles. Her earlier work in polars and an enigmatically labeled “fable de rue,”for example,find here a complement in what she calls a“conte québécois” that traces the voyages taken by Yolande, a voyante who fears she has lost her talent of seeing her clients’ impending death. In language suggesting that of a wizened storyteller keen on sharing life-changing truths contained in a fantastical tale, Le Maner’s raconteur paints his narrative picture in broad, self-confident strokes; his Yolande, the seer who may no longer be able to see,will no doubt have much to reveal to the listeners to his tale. The colorful if awkward...