Des nouvelles d'Édouard / Michel Tremblay (Chroniques du Plateau Mont-Royal #4, 1991, Lemeac)

Of the 6 books from Chroniques du Plateau Mount-Royal series by Michel Tremblay Des nouvelles d'Edouard is my favorite. It is a striking book. When I took it in my hands after having read the previous three I thought this one would be another charmingly busy multi-figure anthropological canvas describing life in a certain area of Montreal. And the book indeed begins as expected. However soon it takes a completely different turn, changes genre and becomes a book on a solitary journey of self-discovery with most of the action taking place actually outside of Montreal and outside of the continent altogether.
I love both the psychological and the anthropological layers of this work by Tremblay. Edouard, a ridiculous "nobody" with a flair for exuberance ends up as a truly tragic character, whose dreams will never meet the reality, who will forever be in love with things totally inaccessible (this goes for people, places etc.) and even when he gets a crazy chance to get close to them... he prefers dreams. The Paris of his dreams suits him better than the real Paris, and the person he is in love with will never be his for a number of objective reasons, but never mind, because the spiritual connection is more important for Edouard than any physical one. And that (and not his sexual orientation) is what makes him truly "different" from others.

On the anthropological level, this is an exciting reading for anyone interested in learning about "Québécanthrope", as the great Gaston Miron put it. Through the experiences of such an "atypical" person as Edouard, Tremblay's talent nevertheless is delivering spot-on observations about the mutual perceptions of the French and the French Canadians and captures the very complex relationship between Quebec and France.

On the purely entertainment level, this is a fun book, very smooth and fun reading. I read it with an e-map in hand, as I always do reading Tremblay, by the way, but this time it wasn't only the map of Montreal, but also the map of France and the map of Paris...