Guyana

by Élise Turcotte

Renouant avec les veines fortes de son premier roman, Le bruit des choses vivantes, Élise Turcotte raconte ici l’histoire d’une mère — Ana — et de son fils —Philippe — dont les vies sont chamboulées par la mort de leur coiffeuse, qui a toutes les apparences d’un suicide. Un an auparavant, Rudi, le père de Philippe, mourait d’un cancer ; l’adolescent en est demeuré inconsolé, et autour de lui une propreté maniaque doit régner, contre le monde « ennemi ».
À travers ce récit qui prend la forme d’une enquête, la mère, qui est aussi journaliste, remonte la piste de cette mort mystérieuse jusqu’à une étrange proximité entre la victime et elle-même. À mesure que progresse sa connaissance de la vie de Kami, son enfance et ses drames familiaux, on apprend comment cette jeune Guyanaise s’est trouvée impliquée malgré elle dans un commerce de drogue dont son salon de coiffure, le « Joli Coif », servait de couverture. Dans le tiroir des souvenirs personnels d’Ana se réveille alors le souvenir d’un événement violent qui date de novembre 1978, alors que 914 membres de la secte du Temple des Peuples, dirigée par le révérend Jim Jones, mouraient assassinés au Guyana.
Comment donc s’attachent les drames de la vie des uns et des autres ? Comment le malheur de cette coiffeuse d’une Ville Saint-Laurent multiculturelle, où a pris racine un mini ghetto guyanais dans ce salon squatté par de jeunes délinquants, en arrive-t-il à devenir celui d’Ana et de son fils Philippe ?
Un roman de maturité, un récit transparent qui supporte une histoire inspirée de faits réels, où de grands vertiges s’emparent du malheur de vivre la vie entière.

Genres: Canada

174 pages, Broché

First published September 19, 2011

About the author

Élise Turcotte is a Canadian writer. She completed her BA and MA in literary studies at the University of Quebec and later received her doctorate at the Université de Sherbrooke.

Her writing has won much praise, and among other things she has won the Grand Prix de Poésie, as well as the 2003 Governor General's Award for her novel La Maison étrangère and the Prix Émile-Nelligan for La voix de Carla in 1987, and for La terre pst idi in 1989. Her novel The Alien House was shortlisted for the 2004 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation.

Élise Turcotte lives in Montreal, where she has taught at the CEGEP de Vieux-Montréal since 1986.


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Élise Turcotte a obtenu un baccalauréat en arts et une maîtrise en études littéraires à l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Elle a ensuite obtenu son doctorat à l'Université de Sherbrooke. Après la publication de recueils de poésie, elle aborde le roman, la nouvelle et fait paraître plusieurs livres pour enfants, tout en conservant un intérêt constant pour l'écriture poétique.

Elle enseigne la littérature au Cégep du Vieux-Montréal.

Le fonds d'archives d'Élise Turcotte est conservé au centre d'archives de Montréal de Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Reviews

[Jim Fonseca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is set in French Canada (Montreal) and is translated from the French. A woman with a precocious young son finds herself a single mother upon the death of her husband from cancer. Although she is a sometimes-journalist, her life becomes focused on her son; almost excessively so, as she dotes on his every mood, word, and dream.

Meanwhile her hairdresser dies under mysterious circumstances. (Her son’s hairdresser also -- yes the little kid has a hairdresser – long story.) For reasons that aren’t really clear, even to her, she begins to spend time investigating the hairdresser’s death – a woman she really hardly knew. Perhaps a traumatic episode in the main character’s past brings out her empathy for the hairdresser or maybe her instincts as a journalist.

The hairdresser was an immigrant to Montreal from Guyana. Guyana, in South America, is former British Guiana, home to Indians (from India, both Hindus and Muslims who came as indentured servants), Africans, Amerindians, Europeans and many culturally mixed groups. But Americans know it best as the site of the 1978 “Jonestown Massacre” where more than 900 people, mainly Americans in a religious cult, drank or were forced to drink, the purple Kool-Aid.



So the story bifurcates and we get the main character’s daily life catering to her son, and her findings of the hairdresser’s life, pieced together from conversations with the police and with the hairdresser’s roommate. References to Jonestown act as a backdrop to the story of the hairdresser. Without giving any plot away I can say the hairdresser dies in the most unusual way I’ve ever read in a novel – thus the uncertainty and mystery surrounding her death.

A very good read. It kept my interest and the plot kept moving. The writing is excellent and very literary, especially where she mediates on her husband’s death. The book won an award in Canada.

[Diane S ☔ · Rating 3 out of 5]

That the author is a poet is quickly apparent in this book told in lyrical prose. When her favorite hairdresser and friend Jimmie is said to have taken her own life, Ana is compelled to find out why. Jimmie had always seemed to fun loving, colorful and filled with life.

The long reach of violence and the secrets both women kept, tie them unknowingly to each other. I loved Ana's son Philippe, trying to find out the secrets his mother has been keeping while hoping his mother does not go away. These are both flawed women, trying to overcome a violent past. In KImmie's case the violence in Guyana which she escapes from only to find a type of urban violence here in the states. Whether she has committed suicide is the big question, and the ending was quite a surprise.

This is a short book that explores the psyche of two women scarred from previous events in their lives. How does one react when things in their present spin out control? A beautifully written story that is best read slowly to savor the language and a book where the true connections to the past are not revealed until the very end.

[Becca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have to think about how to rate this. I liked it, but not sure to what degree yet.

[World Literature Today]

This book was featured in the Nota Benes section of the January/February 2015 issue of World Literature Today Magazine.

http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ana et son jeune fils Philippe sont en deuil depuis le décès récent du papa de ce dernier. La mère tente tant bien que mal d’épargner son fils en lui cachant son propre désarroi. Philippe, solitaire, au tempérament anxieux, se montre hypervigilant. Il observe, déduit et comprend plus que ce qu’on lui dit. N’aimant pas être touché, le jeune garçon ne jure que par les services de Kimi (Kimaya Shadeck), la seule coiffeuse qui réussit à s’occuper de sa tête et par ricochet, de celle de sa mère. Le malheur s’accentue dans la petite famille lorsque le soudain suicide de Kimaya vient bousculer leur vie. Ana n’y croit pas et entame alors une quête pour faire la lumière sur cette triste fin.

Une histoire triste, touchante. L’autrice met en scène des femmes longtemps brisées à la suite d’agressions sexuelles par des hommes qui ne savent pas gérer leurs blessures, leur déception, leurs émotions ou leur colère.

Citation :
« L’amour arrive comme un cadeau, un cadeau que l’on peut se faire à soi-même si l’on n’est pas trop pris dans le passé, si une des deux personnes fait en sorte que le sentiment reste gratuit. » p. 81

[Aly]

Lorsque Ana apprend la mort de la coiffeuse de son fils, elle cherche des réponses, mais va plutôt y trouver des souvenirs.

C'est un roman qui, malgré le début où il est question de la mort d'une personne, commence en douceur mais qui se termine en cauchemar, vu la nature de ce qu'on veut dénoncer dans cette histoire.

[Léa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conclusion; c'est tous des menteurs.
C'est si bien écrit, ça t'agrippes.
Mais, la fin??? Je ne sais pas trop quoi en penser, d'un côté c'était magnifique, mais je pense que j'aurais aimé mieux ne rien savoir, que Kimi n'est pas de voix, qu'on reste pris dans les supposisions et les mensonges d'Ana.

[Kristine Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I knew how this book came to be on my Want to Read list. It was quite a bit different from what I usually read and I enjoyed it for that reason. It's a book about trauma and grief and how one continues on with life in spite of the mess in your head. But it's also a ghost story.

The author's writing on the interactions between Ana the mom and Philllipe her son, are quite extraordinary. Ana is extremely perceptive (maybe because of her grief), enabling her to understand the most nuanced behaviour of her son. There almots seems to be a telepathic connection between Ana and her son. At the beginning of the novel she is preoccupied with the specter of her husband who makes his presence known to both Ana and her son. Kimi, her son's hairdresser, has been incorporated into her monthly coping ritual, but she's on the periphery. Until Kimi dies and slowly Ana grasps at whatever connection she might have had with Kimi. As this connection grows, moving beyond the memories of the physical into the spiritual plane, the ghost of her husband recedes.

It was very interesting to see how the author used the Jonestown Massacre as the connecting point for Ana and Kimi. Through the retelling of the Jonestown Massacre in 1978, the author resurfaced my own memories of this event and how it was probably the first "current news events" that started the end of my childhood innocence - I was 9 years old. (The next event would be the assassination of John Lenon even though I didn't really know who he was - I witnessed the impact it had on everyone around me.)

There's a lot going on in this short novel. Worth a slow read. Ultimately, it's a down-to-earth, exceptionally realistic reflection of impact of trauma as lived and as seen (in the media) on victims and their offspring.

[Nick The Lemming · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written short novel, wonderfully translated by Rhonda Mullins who keeps the poetry of the original writing intact throughout. A book about death and loss, with some harrowing parts toward the end, with the Jonestown massacre a constant theme bubbling behind the main plot, that of the sudden death by hanging of a hairdresser and the effect it has on one of her customers and her son, who are themselves still coming to terms with their own loss and trauma.

I can't say it was a joy to read - some parts are quite dark - but it was an impressive read, and I would definitely read more of her work.

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, though it took awhile for it to really insinuate itself into my head. It's obvious Turcotte is a poet, and the translation is beautifully rendered. This book is about hauntings, both metaphorical and possibly literal, and you don't quite see all the connections between characters and events until near the end. Ana and Kimi are the kind of characters that will linger in your memory even after the book is done. I read this in short bursts on the subway, and I would definitely recommend taking it slowly and giving it time to sink in.

[Mercia McMahon]

A very interesting book that deals with a harrowing subject, but one of those books that are next to impossible to review because nothing can be said without giving away the plot. I can give away that it is a highly recommended read. Slightly more of a review at http://mmmporium.com/guyana

[Véronique · Rating 3 out of 5]

Apprécié. Douce plume. Suspense efficace.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je ne sais comment décrire ce que je viens de lire tellement c'est venu me chercher. C'est une écriture qui frappe fort. Sensible, habile et juste.

[Patrick Dion]

Pas terminé.

[Myriam St-Denis Lisée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un livre bouleversant, magnifique. Un de mes coups de coeur de l'année!