La désolation par Jérémie Leduc-Leblanc

one starts to sympathize with him a little, or at least to wonder. Telmosse seems to spend his days replaying his daughter Audrey’s accidental death (she is hit by a car crossing a major street with her bicycle). His relationship with his wife Suzanne has unraveled, and his interactions with Audrey’s surviving sister, Ophélie, also suffer from his unending grief. Leblanc has even woven excerpts from Audrey’s diary into the text, lending a surprising elegance to the portrayal of the grieving father’s pain and confusion . Revealing how the seemingly inevitable encounter between Berthiaume and Telmosse plays out would be a disservice, since that encounter is both central to the experience of the novel as a whole and also somewhat stunning. Leblanc’s economy of language is striking in this third novel. His first two, Quinze secondes de célébrité (2009) and Quelques jours à vivre (2012), proved he could write well about Montreal’s underbelly. Zagreb confirms that he can write a pretty good father-daughter story, too. University of Wisconsin, Madison Ritt Deitz Leduc-Leblanc, Jérémie. La désolation. Montréal: Triptyque, 2013. ISBN 978-289031 -874-8. Pp. 177. $20 Can. This collection of eighteen short stories explores the feelings of bleak resignation when one is faced with the horrific reality of such events as death, abandonment, suicide, or rape. In “Step by step,” flight attendant Penny Marshall has her throat slit by a man who apologizes for doing so:“Quand je posai enfin une main sur ma gorge, je l’entendis murmurer un faible ‘je suis désolé, je suis désolé’ en secouant la tête de gauche à droite” (21). The story continues with Penny reliving her day one step at a time in the few minutes before she dies. However, what makes this story especially memorable is the fact that the events of her day are told in reverse order. In other words, the narration of events begins with the one just before Penny is attacked and one by one, or step by step, ends with the way her day started in Boston. At first the reader feels unsettled by this unique re-wind narration style as the transitions between paragraphs do not seem to make sense. Learning about Penny’s co-workers, the mundane aspects of her job, her reasons for staying with her boyfriend Gary, and her morning commute to the airport, helps the reader relate to Penny, especially as she comes to grips with her imminent death. Equally unforgettable is “Flor de rétama,” the unsettling story of a young man who, when returning home shortly after midnight, is violently attacked and raped by his brother and his gang of friends:“mon frère évite toujours de croiser le regard de ses victimes, de peur de s’y reconnaître. Le temps pour moi de décliner mon identité [...] il avait déjà baissé son pantalon devant ses copains qui jubilaient et commençait à me pénétrer” (37). Like “Step by step,” what distinguishes Leduc-Leblanc’s narrative style in“Flor de rétama”is his singular approach in presenting the victim’s point of view. This time, the victim is in a coma and his thoughts are relayed from the hazy mist of it: “même si personne n’aime se faire 270 FRENCH REVIEW 88.2 Reviews 271 massacrer par son propre frère, les conflits œdipiens ont toujours la cote auprès de l’académie” (40). Completely powerless to tell his family and doctor that it is his brother who raped him, he becomes increasingly frustrated as his girlfriend first reads a children’s story to him and then the headlines from the daily newspaper where he learns that he is described as the victim of a heinous and gratuitous crime. Once again, the reader’s unease becomes one with the victim’s pain. These short stories are not for the faint of heart. Yet, one would be hard pressed to find another author who is able to enter so adeptly into the mindset of the victims of perverse crimes. Canisius College (NY) Eileen M. Angelini Lemaitre, Pierre. Au revoir...

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