The Quebec master of suspense, Patrick Senécal, is celebrating his 30-year career this year, during which he has published around twenty novels. He is also releasing a new book on Thursday, Civilizedwhich tells the story of a scientific experiment that turns sour.
From the first pages, we learn that twelve Quebecers from various backgrounds have been selected by two psychologists to take part in a mysterious study. Sent far from the rest of the world, the participants will see their ability to live together put to the test. The experience, which initially resembles a vacation, will take an unexpected turn.
As usual, Patrick Senécal multiplies the twisted twists and turns that send shivers down the spine. Those who love the novelist’s dark worlds will therefore be on familiar ground.
The writer, who “starts to have mileage in his body”, tells the Duty however, having wanted to step out of his comfort zone in this work. “I don’t want to fall into the trap of the author who is prisoner of his style and his mannerisms,” he confides.
The 56-year-old therefore took on the challenge of surprising himself and his readers. “And I find that there are quite a few things different from my previous novels. Yes, it’s a thriller, but it’s much more humorous than the others,” he points out.
He admits that he would not have dared to stage a sociological experiment with a serious tone. “It still requires knowledge that I don’t have,” he says.
Cleavage and dangerous play
In Civilized, the writer however takes the opportunity to shoot arrows at our society. On Facebook, Internet users are often divided and stuck to their “unshakeable” positions, he points out. “My book therefore captures the spirit of the times in relation to our intolerances towards each other, but also in relation to a certain delicacy. You must always be careful not to offend anyone. »
Patrick Senécal, for his part, allows himself to excoriate each of the characters present in his new work. “As much whites as blacks, young or old,” he lists.
It is also no coincidence that the twelve participants in the experiment are all caricatures. “I think it’s a good way to show our faults,” he explains.
The author therefore spares no one in his novel. He makes fun of, among others, Lucie, a pretentious and unpleasant writer, as well as Yvan, a doctor who makes inappropriate jokes. “This man, who is of my generation, represents in a bleak way the heterosexual white fifty-year-olds who are convinced that the world belongs to them. »
In the microsociety of Civilized, everyone has something to reproach themselves for, maintains Mr. Senécal. Readers will discover it as they go along, he continues. The narrator often breaks the fourth wall by speaking to them, in order to reveal some clues concerning the rest of the story.
“I always put my reader in a game position, but a game that will make him uncomfortable,” says the author. The latter explains that the more the novel progresses, the more humor gives way to drama. “The idea was to say: ‘Be careful, excess can lead to surprising things,’” he says, careful not to reveal too many details.
Always the sacred fire
Thirty years after the publication of his first novel, 5150, rue des Ormes, Patrick Senécal says he is still driven by a passion for telling stories. “But not all writers do that, some are more into autofiction, the analysis of their behavior or reflections on their life,” he explains.
He is delighted that the plot of his very first work still succeeds in pleasing readers. The novel tells the story of a young man who, after a bicycle accident, finds himself sequestered in the house of a family whose father is a psychopath.
At the time he wrote his first book, in 1994, Mr. Senécal did not pretend to believe that he would one day make a living from his pen, he relates. “You can vaguely hope for it, but you can’t write for it,” he maintains.
From its very beginnings, however, it has managed to retain the loyalty of many readers, who are now in their fifties or sixties. Several people in their thirties also report being fond of his world, since they discovered it as teenagers with The passenger.
This short novel delves into the daily life of a literature professor who one day decides to let the hitchhiker he always sees posted in the same place into his car. “It’s my book that is read the most in secondary schools, because it is neither too long nor too trash. For me, it’s a business card, actually. Which I never would have believed when I published it in 1995,” he says.
When he looks at the progress made in three decades, the man who “never had a career plan” considers himself fulfilled. “I tell myself that I can’t complain,” says Patrick Senécal, smiling.