For a novel with such a passionate title, it’s actually one of the most mediocre, middling and lazy book I’ve ever read. Wanna read ACTUAL anger and irony ? You’re in the right place, since a great many reviewers on here are much wittier and passionate than this average middle-aged man AND you get to read them FOR FREE! That’s right! I had to pay 20$ dollars and the most emotion I got out of homeboy Stephane was a threat to go honk outside someone’s window at night… Real fucking let down, no gonna lie. If you can’t find angry enough reviews, I’d say 90% of mine are either passive agressive or just plain mean so have at it and save your money for talented authors with something meaningful to say.
I understand the point of the book is to get angry at mundane things, be the antithesis to actuality journalists but, ironically, that lack of passion about the subject matter is this book’s undoing in my opinion . Dompierre isn’t really funnier than average, and he certainly doesn’t have unique takes; the only things he has going for him is a lot of dumb complaints, too much time on his hands and the willingness to pester readers with his petty problems. Everything reads so cushioned, so verily stupid it feels like the man has had no real struggles in his life besides people honking at him in traffic.
In the preface, cleverly named I’ll admit, he mentions the one time he ACTUALLY got as angry as he pretends to be (for “humorous” purposes) in Fâché Noir : in his youth, now 40 years ago, when a cashier refused to change his BAG of pennies (so obsolete they were removed from the Canadian money system when I was a teenager) for a 20$ bill so he could go grocery shopping. Maybe it’s my fragile heart, maybe it’s my station as a broke student, but that anecdote felt so raw, so deeply humiliating; I wish that even if Dompierre understandably steered clear of sensitive subjects, Fâché Noir could have retained some of that utter rage.
Go gurl, give us nothing!