Javotte by Simon Boulerice
Javotte by Simon Boulerice (2012) Not translated into English.
I was browsing through the shelves of French Canadian literature in a bookshop in Québec City when I spotted Javotte by Simon Boulerice. I wanted to read something contemporary, something about today’s French Canadians and not a bleak tale about peasants or the working class in the 1940s or the life a new immigrant in Montreal. I wanted to read a light novel anchored in the present and devoid of clichés. So Javotte it was.
Javotte Tremaine is 17 and when the books opens, she tells us how a car accident broke her feet and left her without a father. It’s a short chapter of barely one and a half page but it sets the tone of this first person narrative.
| C’est une douleur exceptionnelle : mes deux pieds ont cassé en deux. Un instant ils étaient là, ces pieds, élancés pareil à ma silhouette, sur le tableau de bord où je les peinturais de rouge. (…)
L’instant d’après, mes pieds sont broyés, dans une forme nouvelle et compliquée. Ils sont là, devant moi. Ils reposent sur le tiroir cassé de la boîte à gants, comme dans un écrin. Mes pieds : deux bijoux émiettés. |
It is an excruciating pain: my two feet have broken in two. One moment they are here on the dashboard, these feet, long and slim like my figure. I was painting them up in red. (…)
The next moment my feet are smashed into a new and complicated shape. Now they’re here before me. They lay on the broken drawer of the glove compartment as in a jewelry case. My feet: two crumbled jewels. |
It is tragic but told from a quirky angle. Javotte is a novella composed of short and punchy chapters and we’re always sharing Javotte’s thoughts. She’s your typical adolescent full of angst and self-deprecation. She thinks she’s gangly and ugly. She plays it tough and considers herself mean even if her self-protection walls aren’t as tall and thick as she’d like them to be. She has a huge crush on Luc, the star player of the basketball team at the high school. She’s jealous of the pretty Carolanne who captured Luc’s attention.
If Javotte could be summed up to this, it would be banal, another teenage book about adolescence, a pale Québec cousin of the Linnea trilogy by Katarina Mazetti.
But Javotte also lives with a coldhearted mother who holds her responsible for her husband’s death and favors her younger daughter Anastasia. (Or so we’re told, through Javotte’s eyes) Her relationship with Anastasia is rocky. It’s not based on equal footing and Javotte manipulates her gullible younger sister.
Javotte was close to her father and her loss is indescribable. Her grief doesn’t show in a straightforward and obvious way. It puzzles people around her. She seems odd. She’s a little nasty.
All these elements could lead to a bleak story laced with melodrama but Simon Boulerice dodges the drama bullet. His Javotte is bold. She experiments life. She has a peculiar thought process and seeks comfort in odd places. Out of spite and to have something on her, Javotte engages in casual sex with Carolanne’s father, Stéphane. This secret makes her feel powerful. There’s absolutely no romance in this relationship, only lust and opportunity. You can imagine that Javotte is not into political correctness. Its main character is blunt, it’s rather graphic, it talks about homosexuality, aids and is about a girl who’s far from the cliché of romantic teenagers. I bet it would make it on the Frequently Challenged book list in the US if it were translated into English.
Behind this assertive façade, Javotte isn’t that strong, that indifferent to others’ reactions. She’s looking for affection, something scarce in her life after her father’s death. I liked her spunk.
| Au retour en classe, notre prof de français nous demande de nous définir. Un adjectif et une comparaison.
Carolanne écrit : « Belle comme le jour » Luc écrit : « Sportif comme Saku Koivu » Camille écrit : « Intelligente comme Simone de Beauvoir. » Moi, j’ose : « Suave comme un verre de lait. » Notre prof trouve que je me démarque par mon originalité. Je suis du même avis. |
Back in class, our French teacher asks us to write a definition of ourselves. With an adjective and a comparison.
Carolanne writes: “As beautiful as daylight” Luc writes: “As athletic as Saku Koivu” Camille writes: “As intelligent as Simone de Beauvoir” Me, I dare to write: “As suave as a glass of milk” Our teacher thinks my quirkiness stands out. I agree with her. |
You know what? Me too.
PS: Unfortunately, Javotte is not available in English. I hope that an Anglophone publisher picks it one of these days.
Book Around the Corner 
There is something very ‘unvarnished’. isn’t there, about some of these Quebecois writers? They are very direct and frank, and would (as you say) cause a stir in some parts of the US. I am still trying to get hold of more Nelly Arcan books, for instance: she certainly is merciless about gender relations and contemporary Quebec.
LikeLike
I totally agree with you. I like this directness.
I haven’t read Nelly Arcan yet but she’s on my mental TBR.
LikeLike
I tend to avoid books about teenagers–films too. I find it hard to relate.
LikeLike
This one is not for you, that’s for sure.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Funny I just started one in which a main character is in her teens but the narrative is quickly leading away into adulthood.
LikeLike
This one stays in adolescence, I’m afraid.
LikeLiked by 1 person