In an interview with “Le Devoir”, the Canadian writer discusses the multiple manifestations of trauma, the labels imposed on women and the nobility of the Yukon.
Our meeting with Kim Fu in a cafe at the foot of Mount Royal draws to a close when the translator of his new novel, Annie Goulet, brandishes her phone above the table. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but Kim, you’re on the shortlist for the Giller Prize. »
Since the publication of his first novel, For Today I Am a Boy (Héliotrope, 2020), the Canadian writer is no stranger to literary recognition. But this time, mute, wide-eyed and one hand over her mouth, she struggles to realize the magnitude of her feat. The prestigious award, which annually rewards the best novel or collection of short stories published in English in Canada, counts among its laureates Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and Mordecai Richler. ” Oh my God ! I don’t know what to say, I hardly dare look at my phone. Of course, everyone already knows. »
It’s the book Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century (2022) — a collection of highly imaginative short stories borrowing from science fiction, fantasy and the detective genre — which earned him such accolade.
The author, who now resides in Seattle, is however visiting Montreal for a completely different reason: to promote the French version of her second novel, originally published in 2018. Five girls lost forever tells the story of Nita, Andee, Isabel, Dina and Siobhan, five little girls aged 9 to 11 on vacation at Camp Forevermore. During a kayak excursion, they find themselves, after a night in tents, left to their own devices, their boats adrift, at the mercy of hunger, thirst and wild animals.
It was during a writing residency in the Yukon in 2015 that I had the idea. At -40°C, deprived of daylight from dawn to dusk, walking in snow and ice, I started to think about survival and vulnerability. I wrote for three days and three nights, without stopping.
From childhood to adulthood, the novelist explores from unexpected angles the influence of this nightmarish and founding adventure on the future of each of the survivors.
The snapshot of the aurora borealis
“It was during a writing residency in the Yukon in 2015 that I had the idea for this story,” says Kim Fu. I already had the characters in mind for a while, not knowing how they related to each other. Then, at -40°C, deprived of daylight from morning to night, walking in snow and ice, I started to think about survival and vulnerability. I wrote for three days and three nights, without stopping, which was to become the first draft of the novel. »
Yukoners friendly mock the stereotype of southerners who breeze through their desert lands and claim that the experience has changed their lives. “The stereotype is true,” says the author, laughing. I was no longer the same after my stay. I expected to be depressed by the darkness and the cold. But there is a kind of luminosity that emanates from all this whiteness. And the Northern Lights were there all the time. I lay down on the river to watch the sky and let the inspiration come. I met generous and welcoming people. It was wonderful. »
Kim Fu nevertheless chose to situate the action of Five girls lost forever on the Pacific coast, mostly in his native British Columbia. She knows better the forests, the beasts and the threats; the perfect canvas for a survival story.
And although the decor hints at a scenario a la Lord of the Flies Where Yellowjackets, Kim Fu takes the reader down the most subtle and insidious paths of the emancipation story. “Throughout my writing process, I am interested in the social dynamics of adolescence and preadolescence. At this age, the young mature at a different rate. Some of them have the social skills of an adult, while others are still children. They therefore forge very complex social relationships and hierarchies. I found the idea of transposing this dynamic into a situation where the stakes were very high to be fascinating. »
Validate the trauma
The novelist presents alternately the memories of this significant event and the distinct stories of young girls who have become adults. To each of them, she offers a unique voice and perspective, exposing glimpses of some defining or mundane moments in their lives. Isabel, for example, is told through the men in her life. Nita, for her part, sees herself through the prism of her relationship with her mother.
The narrative processes, over which the influence of Alice Munro hovers, judiciously use temporal ellipses to color the reader’s perceptions. “My characters are not all easy to like. You have to spend time with them to tame them and understand their vision of the world. We understand that they find it difficult to shed the labels that those around them have attached to them from a very young age. Like all women, they are constantly reacting to the expectations and projections of others. »
By declining in several voices the influence — major or negligible, conscious or not — that a trauma can exert on a person’s life, Kim Fu reminds us that these innumerable manifestations are as valid as each other. “We have this idea that trauma opens up two scenarios: that of the survivor or that of the victim. But it’s so much more complex than that. It is necessary to deconstruct this fixation that society has on defining what counts or not as trauma, and the appropriate reaction to heal as quickly as possible and move on. »