L'Homme dans le placard

by Roch Carrier

French

167 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Roch Carrier, OC is a Canadian novelist, playwright and author of "contes" (a very brief form of the short story). He is among the best known Quebec writers in English Canada.

From 1994 to 1997, he served as head of the Canada Council. In 1998, he ran as an electoral candidate for the Quebec Liberal Party under Jean Charest, in the riding of Crémazie. He was defeated by 309 votes.

In 1991, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. From 1999 to 2004, Carrier was National Librarian of Canada.

A quote from "Le chandail de hockey" ("The Hockey Sweater"), one of Carrier's contes, is reprinted on the back of the Canadian five-dollar bill.

Reviews

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

"WOW" is what I said when I finished reading this book. It is a mystery with twists and red herrings and great writing. Two young women are staying in a country house for the week when one is terrified one night by someone coming toward her from the closet when she was in bed. Word got around the village that a man attacked her, and every man is suspect. The reader gets to see into some people's lives and possible clues are dropped. At one point I suspected the right person but it was so cleverly disguised that I wasn't sure. A quick and captivating read.

[Nathalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comment after the first reading some time in the late 1990’s:
Ha, all along I thought I had it figured out but it turns out, he got me !!! :)

I just finished a second reading - January 2025. Now being older I could appreciate so much more all the intricacies in this novel… the way he changes the voice when different people are trying to figure out what is going on. The language of the chief of police in his report is particularly funny. It is a type of language that I have heard people use when trying to sound official but don’t quite manage it. That had gone over my head in the first reading. Also beyond being a mystery, this novel imagines/describes the effect of what happened on the different people in the village. There are commentaries about the mentality of the people in the village and how they view the weekend city people. When I first read this novel I was too young and only interested in figuring out ‘who did it’. It is funny how different a novel can be when you read it at different stages in your life. It was well worth a second reading.