La tournée d'automne

by Jacques Poulin

Comme chaque année en été, un chauffeur de bibliobus entreprend sa tournée des petits villages de la Côte Nord québécoise. Broyant du noir, il n’est pas loin de penser que ce sera la dernière. C’est compter sans la toute-puissance du destin, qui se manifestera à travers Marie. La Tournée d’automne est le récit, tout en nuances et en douceur, de la rencontre entre un homme et une femme et ne dit au fond qu’une chose : la vie, têtue et forte, aura toujours le dessus.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, France, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Canadian Literature, Novels

191 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Hux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly one of the most charming and delicate little novels you'll ever come across. The book is written in a style that's so fresh and cool that it feels like a breeze on the skin. It's always straightforward and clear but equally romantic and thoughtful. Pages melt away in your hands, chapters fall away like leaves, and the quiet, romantic story meanders on with such a sweet lightness of touch that you feel like you're in a half-remembered dream. It's just so... well, it's lovely.

The book is about a character known only as 'the driver.' He is a middle aged man who travels around Canada's most beautiful and isolated regions in his bookmobile so that people in remote villages can always have access to books. One morning, he encounters a troupe of singers, acrobats and performers and it turns out they're also going to tour the same places as the driver. The woman who essentially runs the troupe is called Marie and is also middle-aged and grey haired. These two characters develop a bond which, over the course of the novel, is strengthened with each new encounter as they meet up in one village after another. The romance between them is deep, not a sexual craving but a sincere and authentic connection built on shared interests and temperament. They ease their way into each others lives, gently, slowly.

It's such a beautifully written piece, full of optimism and hope, caring and respect. These people are not young but they've found something in each other, a meaningful love. The book exudes maturity and calm, a sense of coming to terms with what truly matters in life, all done with such brisk and honest prose, full of warmth and clarity. It's also a love letter to literature. The driver (being a lender of books) discusses and mentions several writers and novels all the way through the piece and you'll want to take note of them (it's a great list). The book is extremely charming and
explores, in such a simple and pleasant story, the fragile yet beautiful nature of things, of humanity, love, life, ageing, nature, you name it.

"She returned every one of his caresses and in small steps, taking very good care of one another, they slipped onto the slope of pleasure with the sweetest of sensual delights and under the protection of all the love stories that surrounded them."

[CanadianReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this Quebecois novel, originally published in French in 1993 and recently reissued in English by Steerforth Press, an unnamed middle-aged man known only as “the Driver” travels in a bookmobile for the provincial Ministry of Culture. He has followed the same route every year through the remote villages along the St. Lawrence River’s “North Shore,” distributing books to the networks of readers that have been established there over time. This summer is to be different. Feeling the approach of old age, the Driver knows he hasn’t the psychological fortitude to cope with the inevitable decline of his body. This will be his last trip. The reader learns that he has brought with him a long flexible hose, which can reach from the back of his vehicle to the driver’s side window.

Before he is to leave Quebec City, he is drawn to the performance of a troupe of musicians, jugglers, and entertainers who have come from France to present at the annual summer festival held near the Chateau Frontenac, an iconic hotel overlooking the majestic St. Lawrence River. He meets Marie, a beautiful woman around his age. She’s the manager for the troupe and a kind of director, who always sits or stands in the front row where she can subtly signal the entrances and exits of the performers. The Driver and Marie have an immediate, almost spiritual connection. Marie has a boyfriend, Slim —an acrobat, tightrope walker, and juggler—but there are suggestions that things may be changing between the two of them.

Before returning to France the members of the troupe want to travel, see something of Quebec and perhaps a little of the States, too. They decide to buy an old bus, outfit it for their needs, and accompany the Driver on his route. Once they get going, Marie often travels in the bookmobile alongside her new friend. They have gentle talks about books and life. When not with Marie, the Driver attends to his book networks, collecting the volumes that were selected, read, and passed from one reader to the next in the chains of bibliophiles, and assisting people with their selection of new books for the months ahead. The Driver has read every book he carries, and he knows his readers well. One of the pleasures of Autumn Rounds was encountering names of writers and books I’d never before heard of. Unfortunately, many of the works of Quebecois writers, if they even make it to English-speaking Canada, are not widely known.

This is a delicate, intimate, and gentle novel about books, their ability to connect people, and the mysterious gifts of love and friendship we may be given when we least expect them. It’s lovely.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a world so divisive it feels ready to implode
Autumn Rounds gave me a glimpse of peace and serenity
and brought me back to centre—to calm and tranquility.

That’s the effect the book had on me. The pace was very slow, sweet, and almost dreamy.

The story takes place in Quebec, with a man known only as The Driver. Three times each year, he takes his bookmobile on the road to deliver books to a network of readers from Quebec City to the North Shore. Just prior to starting this particular journey—which he’s decided will be his last—he meets a troupe of free-spirited entertainers as they perform at a park near his apartment. The group will also be travelling through Quebec, making stops along the way to perform and busking to earn enough cash to get them to their next stop. The group’s “manager” is Marie—a grey haired, 50-ish woman who visits from France each summer to organise their stops and help out where needed.

As the group and The Driver will be making some of the same stops, they decide to meet up along the way. Marie opts to travel with The Driver, so they’re spending more and more time together. They have so many things in common, and they’re very comfortable together. Conversation comes easily, and they feel the love growing between them. He wants to admit something to her, but he knows it could change everything. He keeps putting it off and putting it off, but as his final stop nears, he knows he must tell her now. But will she understand?

Autumn Rounds is a quiet, very beautiful love story. Highly recommended.

4 “It’s-never-too-late-to-fall-in-love” stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

[Joe M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tender, reflective, and charming novel, not to mention a great book for book-lovers! Life just seems a little less cynical after spending time on the road with these characters. Going on my 2021 Favorites shelf.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth translated book I read in February. I have been to Haiti, Croatia, Argentina and now I went to the Quebec province of Canada. Jacques Poulin writes in French.

A man, getting on in age, lives alone in Quebec City. Three times a year he drives his bookmobile into the more remote towns, supported by the Arts Council, and brings books to the people. He has a quite relaxed system of lending books and a mild manner that puts people at ease.

This summer he meets a troupe of acrobats, jugglers, and musicians as well as their attractive manager, Marie. The story is part travelogue as they move together along the St Lawrence River. It is also a beautiful tale about two aging people who gradually fall in love. For the two days I was reading Autumn Rounds, I felt free of stress and worry.

Probably the best book mobile story ever. The book mobile loomed large in my childhood and has had a place in my heart ever since.

[Steven Felicelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I started this book, I thought Poulin was French and I was impressed with this slow, quiet narrative. Midway through I realized he was actually Quebecois and now I think it's just a boring, provincial novel.

It's made me think long and hard about how pretentious I am.

[Jim Coughenour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some books create their own spell, stealing you away from whatever workaday world you’re in. Jacques Poulin’s quiet tale is something unexpected, about a man in late middle-age, The Driver of a bookmobile that services the villages on the upper shore of the Saint Lawrence Seaway north of Quebec City. He meets up with a troupe of free-spirited entertainers visiting from France, including a woman of his own age and sensibility, as gentle as he is. The friendship that develops between them is as warming as the cups of hot chocolate they share, along with memories, beloved books and cats that come and go.

I like complicated fiction. I like fiction dark and bleak. I like bitter crime noir and wicked comic romps. Autumn Rounds is different from all of these and I like it too. Something magic about it.

Also: any book published by Archipelago Books is a tactile pleasure in itself.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small gem of a book. Gentle, compassionate and empathetic, with a pared back style, and a deep sense of humanity. It’s the story of an ageing solitary man who drives his Bookmobile around remote areas of Canada, and is beginning to feel that perhaps this trip could be his last. But then he meets Marie, who is travelling with a group of entertainers, and gradually a strong bond is forged between them, a bond which might just shape the rest of his life. A quiet tale of human connection, and, of course, books and their power to inform, to teach and to console.

[Martine · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'aime tout simplement l'écriture lyrique de Jacques Poulin. C'est comme du velour sur la peau.

[michal k-c · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this very charming! Which is partially due to the 1) locality of the story and its writer 2) the simplicity of its prose / concise nature of its inquiry into a certain type of human experience (love)

[Annaliese · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sweetest book I’ve ever read

[Anne-Marie Hallé]

J'avais lu Volkswagen blues à l'école, comme tout le monde. Je crois me souvenir que j'avais aimé l'aventure transaméricaine avec un feel beatnik. Puis un ami qui revisite des auteurs m'a parlé de Poulin dernièrement en disant avoir adoré La tournée d'automne. Cette fois, on voyage entre Québec jusqu'au bout de la route 132 sur la Côte-nord portés par une écriture riche et beaucoup plus classique que ce qui s'écrit au Québec ces jours-ci. C'est encore beau.

[Courtenay · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gentle story about growing older, making friends and finding love late in life. I have traveled some of the roads in AUTUMN ROADS, and with my husband I’m traveling these last roads of our happily ever after. None of us know how far we’ll travel, but we want good books, good friends, and the love of our life to be with us when we complete the journey. This is one of those good books: sweet, charming, and thoughtful. I took my time reading it, savoring each page and the story of the Driver and Marie.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely, soothing read.

As a child I grew up in a small farming community, and I loved the bookmobile that would visit the small town up from ours where I attended elementary school. So imagine my delight when I opened up this book and found the Driver protagonist to be the driver of a bookmobile on his sunmer rounds! I’ll be looking up more translated Poulin.

[Marie-André Tanguay · Rating 4 out of 5]

L'amour si doux raconté au fil d'une aventure si belle

[Adrian Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars. A very gentle novel. A polite novel. The kind of quiet, soft spoken novel that features a main character who fixes hot chocolates for his girlfriend. Who says very clean and polite things and likes lovely books and lovely landscapes. A character who doesn't feel very comfortable dealing with sex and who has probably never uttered a curse word his entire life. Honestly, I was disgusted. Halfway through the novel and I just wanted him to do a line of coke and fuck his new girlfriend.

We are never privilege to know the reasons behind the main character's big secret. That aspect of the protagonist certainly made him more vulnerable but only in a superficial way. Everything else goes splendidly for him so there aren't very many stakes other than the whim of his imagination. I think this is why I couldn't really connect to this novel of very sparse and simple prose (not a bad thing in and of itself).

This is the second novel by Poulin I've read and I get that he working within a very particular mood. The trouble for me is that I found this particular expression of conservatism off putting. I didn't admire the protagonist, nor feel pity for him. I found him annoying after awhile and I was absolutely not sympathetic to his plight, whatever its cause.

All of that said, I wouldn't be surprised if a person told me they loved this. I wouldn't disparage them either. It is gentle and kind and soft, like a very fuzzy sweater with rounded shoulders and long sleeves that go a little over the hands. This whole novel is like someone wearing that sweater early in the morning while standing in a doorway holding a cup of cocoa and watching the sunrise. A little too close to an Instagram post for me but maybe I've just gotten cynical.

[Héléna Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

C’est toujours aussi charmant et réconfortant de lire Jacques Poulin, j’ai l’impression de partir en vacances, simplement, dans des paysages familiers. En plus, le bibliobus est un rêve pour les personnes amoureuses des livres ! L’écriture date un peu, quelques expressions ont vieillies mais ça fait le charme de ses œuvres.

[Laurence Boisjoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

« La circulation était plus intense, les villages plus rapprochés, mais le fleuve n’avait pas changé: il était toujours aussi large, patient, majestueux, et Marie le regardait, éblouie.
— Ça va faire un grand vide quand il ne sera plus là, dit-elle. Je ne sais pas si je pourrai m’habituer.»

[Adèle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Comme toujours, Jacques Poulin est un magicien. C'est doux, touffu derrière une écriture simple et limpide, ça m'a fait revivre mon voyage sur la Côte-Nord et ça parle de livres. Rien à rajouter, j'ai tout aimé.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's hard to express how beautiful this book was. so much of it occurs between the words, in silences bounded by books and music. it is a love story that hinges on being seen, on a tenderness that runs its fingers along the edges of life's most profound questions. in deceptively simple prose, Jacques Poulin gives readers a story that is so small and yet so encompassing. i was sad to come to the final page.

[Darryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5 stars) This charming and simple novel takes place in and around Québec City, and the primary character is an older man known as The Driver, who owns an old milk truck that he has converted to a bookmobile. During the autumn months he travels to nearby towns and hamlets, delivering books provided to him by the provincial government, and meeting old and new friends along the way. He enjoys what he does, but he lives alone in a fifth floor apartment, and loneliness is a constant companion that saps his life of satisfaction.

On one summery day he hears a band playing a marching tune, and he decides to go out and investigate this unusual occurrence. The music comes from a band accompanied by a troupe of jugglers, acrobats and singers from France, who are traveling from town to town. While there he meets the manager, a striking woman who resembles an older version of Katherine Hepburn in appearance and manner. The Driver and Marie immediately hit it off, and after spending time together she and the members of the troupe decide to rent an old bus and follow The Driver on his rounds to deliver books in the province, as they need to earn money to allow them to return to France.

The book is filled with rich descriptions of the Québec countryside, along with books and beloved singers of the past. The burgeoning love between The Driver and Marie is quite touching, and I was caught up in their relationship as if they were close friends of mine.

I’ve loved the two books I’ve read by Jacques Poulin, as he is a master storyteller whose books touch my heart. Autumn Rounds is right up there with Mister Blue and Translation Is a Love Affair, and it’s a novel that I’ll certainly read again in the near future.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

“She had started to pick some new books and it was a pleasure to see how comfortable she was in the library. She’d pick up the books, leaf them, stroke them, talk to them, and breathe in their odor. Bathed in the soft light spread by the sun as it set behind the village, she turned around, searching through all the shelves (…).”

“It’s is true that the books protect us but their protection doesn’t last forever. It’s a little like a dream. One day or another, life catches up with us.”

Autumn Rounds by the Canadian writer, Jacques Poulin is a gentle, tender, luminous and deeply meditative novel exploring the meaning of solitude, literature in our life, human connections, growing old and finding love at mature age. It is also an ode to the natural beauty of the Quebec landscapes and their power to heal physical and emotional wounds. Jacques Poulin offers a tale of many ordinary moments of seemingly simplistic tasks becoming an extraordinary event.

Writing is subtle and delicate to reflect the inner life of the main protagonist, the Driver and people he encounters during his journey. Poulin’s prose conveys soothing melancholy in which characters in his book find the air of comfort.


With chapters like Light from Books Autumn Rounds is a wonderful treat for bibliophiles.


Autumn Rounds tells a story of a gentle middle-age man referred to as the Driver who runs a mobile library travelling around Quebec along the north bank St Lawrence river visiting little towns and villages lending his books to the readers with their unique tastes for great literature. He is a sensitive character, with firm convictions and empathy for his fellow human beings as well as animals – before starting up his van he always checks if there are cats under his mobile library to ensure he does not hurt them. Thanks to the Driver the books get to isolated villages warming people’s spirits. The books he delivers to people constantly move around and are on their own journey. According to the Driver this is “the best thing that could happen to them.” In Autumn Rounds books are associated with light, and they almost have a spiritual meaning.

“He’d spent part of his childhood reading in that room flooded with light, sitting in a deep armchair with his feet resting on the window ledge. And over time, because the sun had brightened him and warmed him while he was reading, his mind had associated light with books. That’s why I wasn’t surprised later on when I saw Shakespeare and Company in Paris one autumn evening, with the golden light that came from the books and spread into the blue light (….).”

Music and travel lovers will be chuffed with the references to the soothing music by Leonard Cohen, Yves Montand, and mentions of various bookstores including Shakespeare and Company in Paris. As for the city of Paris, it also holds a special place in the Driver’s and other people’s life.

“Did you like Paris?”

“A lot. I felt at home there because id read Hemingway’s book, A Moveable Feast. (…) When I got to Paris I went to the places where Hemingway had lived. I took his book and followed the same route: up Cardinal-Lemoine to La Contrescarpe, across the Place du Pantheon, I walked for a while along boulevard Saint-Michel, then I turned onto the little rue de l’Odeon to follow him into Shakespeare and Company. (…) All those places, especially the Place de la Contrescarpe, were even more wonderful than they’d been in my dreams.”

Jacques Poulin’s novel is a gentle homage to literature and finding answers to burning questions in books and the importance of relationship between written word and readers. In Autumn Rounds human connections are based on the similar love for novels where people discuss books they love to find out what values they share.

“(…) the Driver had some idiosyncratic ideas: for instance, he was convinced that if two people were really made to get along together, they should like not only the same books and the same songs, but also the same passages in these books and songs.”

During his rounds, the Driver meets a variety of readers, some of them are damaged people, or going through a heartbreak or depression, experiencing sleepless nights, with unique interests in the literary works of art including a special love for Quebec poets such as Gabirelle Roy, Anne Hibert, Roch Carrier, Felix LecLerc among others as well as writers from far away lands such as Kyrgyzstan. On his journey through Quebec we meet the readers wearing cracked jackets and white silk scarfs that remind the Driver of the aviators-writers such as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. There are readers who are storekeepers, mountain guides, carers working in the elderly homes, factory workers, nurses…readers who look for “a special book”, “ a book that answers questions”, “why we live, why we die.”

“She’d read a great many little-known authors, who weren’t discussed in the literary magazines and who came from places as varied as South Africa, Iceland, Australia, and Eastern Europe. Chingiz Aitmatov, for instance. She had long been familiar with the work of the writer from Kyrgyzstan (…) He had fallen in love with everything by that writer, whose existence he’d been unaware of until then.”

“(…) most of the books she’d chosen were favorites of his, books that had illuminated his life in the same way that lighthouses guide the sailors on the river. The pile included The Old Man and the Sea, The Catcher in the Rye, L’Eclum des jours, L’Avalee des avales, The World According to Garp, Salut Galarneau, On the Road, Agaguk, Bonjour Tristesse, and Letters to a Young Poet. He also spotted La Storia by Elsa Morante (…).”

Autumn Rounds constitutes also a delicate meditation on ageing and finding romantic connections later in life.

“(…) I thought my heart had gone to sleep. Life is stronger that we are (…) And we’ve got all eternity for sleeping.”

“As far as age is concerned, I’m no longer young but I’m not an old man either. Still, I’ve lived long enough to know that everything people say about our golden years, wisdom, serenity – that’s all totally false. At my age I haven’t learned any of the essential things – the meaning of life, good and evil …. It is as if all my experience boils down to nothing. (…) I still have the same fears, the same desires, the same needs that I had as a child.”

Ultimately this is a quiet and gentle read with a sensitive character at its centre with many ruminations on ordinary life and daily tasks and activities making one’s existence a bit less painful. It is a wonderful book to read during the first months of autumn especially when one is in need of something soul-soothing.

“I wanted to know how books come into the world… And its still a mystery to me. The older we get, the fewer certainties we have.”

[A hobbit library ~ Emilie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"C'est vrai que les livres nous protègent, dit-il, mais leur protection ne dure pas éternellement. C'est un peu comme les rêves. Un jour ou l'autre, la vie nous rattrape."

Ce livre est un roman tout en douceur. C'est une ode à la belle province qu'est le Québec, tant par la description des paysages ou par les multiples références de la culture québécoise.
Ceci étant dit, ayant peu l'habitude de lire des auteurs québécois, je n'ai peut être pas appréciée cette oeuvre autant que d'autres. J'ai trouvé le contexte de l'histoire très original et plaisant (un homme qui part de Québec jusqu'à la Côte-Nord en bibliobus), mais le développement m'a peu enchantée. Malgré les 200 pages, ce livre m'a paru long, puisqu'il y avait peu intrigue ou évènements.
Je suppose que cela réflète bien la vie du chauffeur par contre et convient à ce personnage.

Bref, je ne recommenderais peut être pas ce livre à plusieurs, mais je connais plusieurs personnes à qui il plairait certainement!

[Cynthia Turcotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coup de coeur
Tout en subtilité.
C'est pour moi un art de faire durer la romance de la première à la dernière page d'un livre. Deux têtes blanches qui ne souhaitent que la compréhension et la tendresse.

La douceur de cette saison d'amour m'a rapellé celle de l'idylle de Marie Desneiges dans Il pleuvait des oiseaux.

[Véro]

Selon moi, le meilleur roman de Poulin.

[Rebecka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have been a better book if all the characters weren't so annoying.

[Ken Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tôt dans le roman « La Tournée d’Automne », on rencontre Jack, un auteur québécois, qui entend qu’un critique se plaint qu’il écrit toujours la même histoire. C’est drôle, car Jack était le personnage principal du « Volkswagen Blues », un roman antérieur très similaire à cette histoire : un homme d’un âge moyen qui voyage dans un van avec une femme qu’il rencontre, mais les deux restent un peu séparés, au moins pour la plupart du temps. Mais Jack n’est pas l’homme cette fois. Cette fois, le personnage principal est connu seulement comme Le Conducteur (un ami de Jack). Le Conducteur habite dans la Ville de Québec, mais il voyage autour de la belle province trois fois chaque année comme conducteur d’un bibliobus, qui amène des livres aux petites villes qui n’ont pas de bibliothèque ou de librairie.

Avant sa tournée d’été, Le Conducteur rencontre Marie, le directeur d’un cirque français en une tournée du Québec. Le cirque a des jongleurs, un équilibriste, une chanteuse, et un petit chien noir. Après un spectacle du cirque, en dehors du Château Frontenac, prês de l’appartement du Conducteur, Le Conducteur commence à parler avec Marie. Quand les deux se rencontrent une deuxième fois, après un autre spectacle, ils décident qu’ils devraient faire leurs tournées ensemble – le bibliobus et le bus scolaire du cirque.
 
L’histoire de leur voyage ensemble se déroule lentement et doucement. Il n’y a pas de grands événements. Plutôt, il y a beaucoup de petits moments. On voit les oiseaux de mer qui plongent dans l’eau du fleuve, les bateaux qui traversent le large fleuve, les lecteurs qui visitent le bibliobus, et les spectateurs qui assistent aux spectacles. Marie peint ses peintures des oiseaux, Le Conducteur organise les livres sur les rayons et ses réseaux de lecteurs dans son cahier noir. Les deux parlent. Ils parlent de leurs livres préférés et de leurs histoires. Enfin, Le Conducteur parle de la mort. Il a 59 ans, et il n’en veut pas plus.

Va-t-il se suicider ? Vont-ils s’embrasser ? Vont-ils même se tutoyer ? Ces questions auront une réponse… mais lentement et doucement. L’histoire est toujours la même, et toujours différente.

[Larry Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

📚 Book Review: "Autumn Rounds" by Jacques Poulin 📚

In Jacques Poulin's touching novel, "Autumn Rounds," we journey alongside the reclusive Driver, a dedicated bookmobile operator whose life orbits around his mobile library. He lives a solitary existence in Quebec City, mostly keeping company with books and an author friend. His world, defined by routine and unique personal philosophies, is vividly disrupted when he meets Marie, a charismatic figure managing a traveling brass band.

Poulin masterfully crafts a tale of two introverted souls – the Driver and Marie – each navigating their vulnerabilities and the elusive dance of human connection. Their evolving relationship, set against the backdrop of Canada's North Shore and its diverse readers, from fishermen's wives to pilots, unfolds with tenderness and understatement.

"Autumn Rounds" is a meditation on loneliness, the passage of time, and the beautiful yet challenging paths to closeness. The novel paints a vivid picture of life's quiet moments, though it sometimes treads a slower pace. The landscape and characters are drawn with care and affection, making the journey worthwhile for those who appreciate a story rich in detail and introspection.

This book might not dazzle with dramatic twists, but it offers a heartwarming, if at times mild, exploration of two lives intersecting. A recommended read for those seeking a gentle, poignant story that resonates with quiet truths about human connection and the autumn of life.

[Kenza Bessaih · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ce livre ne m'a personnellement pas beaucoup plu. Pour commencer, je l'ai trouvé assez lent, j'aime les livres détaillé, oui, mais dans celui-ci, il n'y avait littéralement zéro rebondissement. Certes c'est logique, puisqu'on parle dans ce livre d'un chauffeur un peu déprimer et qui prend le temps de vivre chaque seconde de la vie, mais j'aurais voulu un petit "twist" à un moment. Ensuite, ce roman est plein de référence à la littérature, normal, on parle d'un bibliothécaire. Le livre est sortie en 1993, donc les références sont adaptées à cette période, donc toute les références littéraire, musicale ou autre je ne les comprenais pas. Pour continuer, les personnages de ce roman sont très sobre, peu détaillée et peu attachant. L'auteur aurais comme trop de retenue, il n'a pas approfondi les personnages, voilà pourquoi il est compliqué de s'y attacher. Par exemple, le chauffeur est le personnage principal, mais nous n'avons aucune idée de s’il a une famille, oui il a une sœur, mais quel est sa relation avec elle. Comment était-il plus jeune? Pourquoi est-il autant déprimé? Toutes ces questions sont sans réponse, même à la fin du livre. Pour finir, les 2 étoiles sont parce que le livre reste quand même enrichissant au niveau géographique, car il m'a fait découvrir plusieurs parties du Québec.

[Zoéli CC · Rating 1 out of 5]

Critères d'appréciations choisis : complexité du récit, intrigue et évolution des personnages.


La tournée d'automne

Personnellement, je n'ai pas aimé le roman "La tournée d'automne". Déjà, je trouve que le récit n'était pas assez complexe. En effet, les évènements principaux étaient toujours un peu les mêmes : le Chauffeur conduisait vers sa prochaine destination où il rejoignait Marie et, parfois, le reste de la fanfare, ils se parlaient d'eux et de leur relation, puis ils repartaient chacun de leur côté. À part ça, je trouve qu'il n'y avait pas plus d'action, donc pas plus de complexité. C'est un peu la même chose avec l'intrigue, d'après moi il n'y en avait pas, à part le fait que le Chauffeur se demandait s'il allait faire une tournée d'automne. Sinon, durant ma lecture, je ne me posais pas de questions à propos de ce qui allait arriver aux personnages, comme si je savais déjà tout ce qui allait se passer. C'est pourquoi je trouve le livre ennuyant. Pour finir, un point positif de l’histoire est l’évolution des personnages. Effectivement, j’ai pu observer qu’au début, le Chauffeur avait du mal à parler et tout au long du livre il a appris à mieux s’exprimer. Quant à Marie, elle a appris petit à petit à faire confiance pleinement au Chauffeur. Ils se sont aidés à évoluer.

Total de mots : 206 mots