The easy charm of finutilité
If you have never heard Daniel Lavoie read in concert some of his poems/poetic essays before they became Finutilité - you are in for a wonderful ride. And if you are the lucky one who has - then you have probably already bought the book!
Finutilité easily charms the reader with the author's poetic vision, his ability to see and to connect images in a truly original way, his honesty and his unique poetic intonation.
Expect to fall in love with Daniel Lavoie's own philosophy of finutilité. Everything eventually passes, but la beauté de l'éphémère (the beauty - or the surprise - of the small things) is always there, and the ability to see it is a talent - a talent for happiness, which the author generously shares with us. But he also shares with us the truth about the reverse side of that: the one who is given the ability to see that deeply cannot help seeing how different lives of others are and that somebody out there must be paying for the gifts that are given to the lucky one.
Texts like "L'assassin gentilhomme" or "Muer" disarm you with a philosophical and self-ironic approach to one's own illusions. "Bye bye" and "Tu es terre" shock you with their brutal honesty and stay with you long after you close the book. "Regardez-moi", "Go gnome", "Élémentaire mon cher", "Tea for two", "Le silence de la poubelle" demonstrate the full power of the author's poetic vision by capturing the uncapturable, expressing with words something for which there are no other means beside poetry. "Sel et sucre", "Mmm...", "Petit cachotier va!", "Vertige", "Pyrosophe", "Faites vos jeux" are perhaps among the most "lavoiesque" texts in how they draw straight lines between the universe and its reflection in something trivial (if you love Lavoie's iconic song "Boule qui roule" you will immediately recognize this "poetic geometry"), and they illustrate the best what in my understanding the finutilité is all about.
And curiously enough, despite multiple musical references in the book (something one would obviously expect from a musician's book), it's the images of silence that are really striking, they are almost acoustic - one virtually hears the silence, sometimes only emphasized by the sound of some little creatures' wings... And there are many versions of silence - from serene to empty to menacing ("L'hirondelle la mouche et le jardinier", "Go gnome", "La cuisine", "L'aube" and many-many others).
This beautiful collection of texts is a true gift to the lovers of francophone poetry. One can't help thinking that only one book from this author is not enough...
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* For my review of Lavoie's second poetry book Particulité, peek here.
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