Monsieur Électrique by Jean-Marc Beausoleil

it, on the belief that learning to handle frustration at an early age makes for a happy child and a happy parent. Rules of social interaction which will endure as lifelong habits are introduced and reinforced as soon as children can speak. Even toddlers are expected to master the simple act of greeting adults with bonjour, the culture’s basic rule of civility. The greeting is a marker of good upbringing and a signal that the child is capable of behaving well. This lesson contrasts sharply with the relaxed attitude of Americans who tolerate the shy skulking of preschool children and the sullen moods of uncommunicative teenagers. A remarkable section of the work details the attention given to food in children ’s lives and the steps taken to cultivate a child’s palate from the earliest months of life. It is not by accident that a French child willingly eats a much wider range of vegetables than the typical American child. French parents are consciously committed to training their children to appreciate many kinds of foods. They view “their child’s first encounter with celery or leeks as the start of a lifelong relationship” (201). It is an essential goal of French parents to bring the child to accept the unique qualities of each food. To this end, a Paris city-wide committee of dietitians carefully balances the four-course meals served to small children in crèches. “There is no mention of French fries, chicken nuggets, pizza, or even ketchup” (204). Food and drinks that contain refined sugar are strictly limited. In short, every child is capable of appreciating a wider array of food than American parents realize. Thereafter, children eat only at predictable times: three meals and the afternoon goûter. Exceptions are allowed for special treats, but children know they will return to the cadre. Consequently, the obesity rate of French children is less than a third of that of American children. French parents refuse to sacrifice an adult life to fulfill every wish of their offspring. Children learn their place in the family at an early age. Unlike many American parents, French parents do not praise their children for routine behavior. They encourage more unstructured play; they do not hover over children at the playground, but sit within eyesight, reading or chatting with friends. This very readable account follows Druckerman’s family through many situations: school issues, interactions among neighbors, social occasions, and finally the birth of twins. Admittedly, the work is one woman’s viewpoint based on her experience and written for a popular audience. Taken on these terms, it is an entertaining and informative perspective on childhood in France. Southeast Missouri State University Alice J. Strange Creative Works edited by Nathalie Degroult BEAUSOLEIL, JEAN-MARC. Monsieur Électrique. Montréal: Triptyque, 2012. ISBN 978-289031 -743-7. Pp. 180. $22 Can. The playfulness of contemporary cultural life in Quebec can be striking to outsiders. Take the thousands recently protesting university tuition rate hikes (and a new law controversially redefining lawful assembly) by gathering nightly in the street, banging on pots and pans. In fiction, an equally playful trope is the 778 FRENCH REVIEW 86.4 “man-boy” whose childish traits follow him tragi-comically through midlife. The recent television series Les Invincibles, about a group of thirty-somethings trying to remain young and cool, illustrates both trends at once: one of the friends is a comic-book illustrator, and all the characters have parallel lives as imaginary superheroes . Journalist and French teacher Jean-Marc Beausoleil’s sixth novel, Monsieur Électrique, carries a whiff of both playfulness and man/boy, with a little suspense thrown in for good measure. As the novel opens, a narrator—Samuel, the protagonist —relates that the text we are reading is a deposition, requested by the police holding Samuel in jail for a murder he claims he did not commit. Samuel teaches at a cégep, and the victim was one of his students. Samuel‘s initial portrayal of his students reads like a cut-rate multicultural iconography advertising Quebec’s generosity toward the world: “Je pense à Didi, un Africain de dix-neuf ans. Il a quitté son pays d’origine...

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