In the first pages of this very short novel, the Acadian France Daigle presents what follows as a “fable-book”.
A term that she believes she invented and that she explains quite simply by naming The Little Prince or even The old man and the sea. “As far as I know, like all the others, this book is a reverie augmented by a ruse,” she writes.
Between her discussions with what she calls the fable-muse, on the one hand, and her reflections inspired by the periodic table of elements, on the other, the writer has fun, sprinkling her text with humor and games of words, even speaking of “literary transvestism” to describe these writings where she juggles at the same time with the notion of gender identity. “Believe me, I never considered that acquiescing to my gendered masculinity would lead me to God!” » This is the kind of reasoning that peppers this book which exudes freedom – freedom of expression, freedom of writing, freedom to be who you want.
Because perhaps for this return to the novel, her first since she won the Governor General’s Literary Award in 2012, with For surethe writer wanted to grant herself the luxury of being able to let her pencil wander as she pleased.
Small pencil to make me look
Boreal
112 pages