Gabrielle and the Long Sleep into Mourning

by Denyse Delcourt, Eugene Vance (Translator)

In a large, isolated house near modern Quebec, eight childhood friends gather to reminisce about their early years in the 1950s. Delcourt’s beautiful novel, translated from the Quebecois French by Eugene Vance, reveals a childhood murder and almost stifled memories of Gabrielle.

Genres: Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Lynne King · Rating 5 out of 5]

The lake is flat. Night. A white dress. Gabrielle is on the beach. She runs. Her hair is flowing. She glides through the long grass. Oh the snow of her dress. She speeds toward the wood. Faster, faster. She is barefoot. She seems to be flying. It is night. She is free. The shadow of the trees bathes her like cool water. Faster, faster. Her dress, the ribbons, diaphanous. Gabrielle. And now, she has disappeared.

I confess that I have never ever heard of this author before but a short review by Jonathan had me intrigued. Excellent. Darn near perfect for what it is - shades of Angela Carter and later Woolf at times. I took a gamble with an unknown author and am I pleased I did. Yes this novella is indeed perfect in every respect.

The plot is set in a large isolated house on a lakeside in modern Quebec. Eight childhood friends, now in their fifties, have gathered for a weekend to reminisce about their early years in a closed and intimated group of young men and women who grew up together around a lagoon of the Palus River in a peaceful and semi-rural town outside of Montreal in the 1950s.

So the scene is apparently set. The friends are here though against a backdrop of the death of Gabrielle, a very otherworldly, asthmatic member of their group who had died at that time. The main narrator, Marguerite, was a close friend of Gabrielle and saw how her fifteen year old friend’s life changed once she met the odd couple, Maria and her brother Walter, who lived in the woods. They, in particular, fascinated Gabrielle and she had to see them both as much as she could. But they were indeed rather odd and then, like a will o’ the wisp, they mysteriously disappeared. This had a profound effect on Gabrielle as she felt as if her lifeline had been irrevocably severed.

I can indeed see why Walter made such an impact on Gabrielle who was fey:

I will teach you to walk like a wolf,” he says. “Just let you hair fall; now lift your head; now use each of your legs; now find your way between the trees. Slowly, slowly at first... ah, your ears are rising up, very good! You understand everything. But I know you, Sweet Thing: you still have never howled. Your lungs are still in a cage. Now stretch out your neck, open your mouth wide, and do just like me: howl, converse with the night. Don’t be afraid. It’s only the moon that makes the shadows dance. The forest belongs to us.

This is one of those soul-searching books that had me wondering about life in general and how our life is really so temporary, as I have often compared, to the twenty-four hour mayfly. Literally here today and gone tomorrow. But the richness in the writing style here is incomparable to anything that I have read since “Stoner” last year.

The artistry with which Delcourt portrays the views of the other friends, such as Léo, Paul, the doctor who has HIV, François and Mimi, the siblings of Gabrielle. Gauche Mimi who had made a rather disastrous choice in husband which ended up dividing her family. Vapid Suzanne with glassy blue eyes. Thérèse, one of those annoying individuals who knows it all, who had organized this long weekend so they all could reminisce on the past. Yet regardless despite knowing that the death of Gabrielle would play a large part in all of this, they were still all eager to meet again.

But it’s the writing style that entrances me. Epiphanies stud the work at every conceivable level in the multi-faceted fabric of this work. Even resurrection surfaces. The influence of water plays an extraordinary part. The novella is punchy, somewhat fragmented in parts but stimulates the desire to continue reading. The book mesmerized me in fact. To have come across an author such as Delcourt is indeed serendipitous!

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book after reading Lynne’s review. I was not as moved and intrigued as she was, but this is the kind of book it takes a while to digest.

A bunch of friends have a reunion in their small Quebec town. (It’s a bit hard to keep track of who is talking and what’s going on, but after a while, you enter the flow and it becomes easier to follow.) They have come to find some kind of closure about their dead friend Gabrielle. The nature of her death and life are surreal, shamanic, real, imagined? I don’t know. But the book is short, small, and unusual. Maybe in a day or two, I will suddenly wake up and say “Aha! Brilliance!” But having just finished it, I’m in the blurry place.

***
Postscript: A day after finishing this book and I'm sorry to report that I have not been blasted by an inner aha. But I think I know why. What I referred to (without giving a spoiler) as a shamanic element to dead girl Gabrielle's life and possibly death felt to me author's-mind-directed (as opposed to gut). Walking into a dark place, the woods, houses with snakes, blue vehicles, shape-shifting teachers, supernatural adventures into bliss--these are all iconic spiritual and shamanic symbols. But they almost seemed planted, separated from the motor of the story. So while I admired the effort a lot, I remained emotionally distant, seeing the effort rather than feeling. But maybe it's just me.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Darn near perfect for what it is - shades of Angela Carter and later Woolf at times.

[Anny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a masterpiece.

The plot set in a vacation house on a lakeside in modern Quebec where there's a group of eight childhood friends, now in their fifties, got together for the weekend to reminisce their early years. The narration was mainly centered around the recollection of the death of their close friend, Gabrielle, who mysteriously disappeared after the encounter with the strange sibling in the wood. There're myths about a crazy old woman, the wolf, the burning house, the ungrateful neighbors, and the troubled family. This book spoke the profound wisdom of love, death, family, and friendship.

Ultimately, what struck me the most was Delcourt's stunning writing style. It's so so perfect. The precise words and the mystery narration urged me to keep reading and putting together the puzzles from different perspectives. The dark fairy tales and odd events kept me stayed past bedtime for a few chilly nights.

“But it is good to enjoy the moment, because in a moment everything will topple. Like an eagle, Death sours high above the Palus. Our days are numbered. We will soon scatter, but the suffering that has been promised will follow us everywhere like a dark shadow.”ーDenyse Delcourt "Gabrielle and the Long Sleep Into Mourning

Have you heard about Denyse Delcourt before? She’s was pretty unknown to me and I’m so grateful to have found her.

[martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

nice format - small book
writing voice pretty old-school-formal
story unclear on what really happens