Zachary Richard has been working on his first novel for almost thirty years. Constantly on the road, touring the four corners of North America, the singer-songwriter tried several times to put his ideas down on paper, in notebooks that he quickly filled in during rare lulls. between two shows.
“I filled a dozen notebooks with my scraggly handwriting,” says the Louisiana native, contacted in Paris by The duty. Every time I came home, I reread it and it inevitably ended up in the trash. It was always bad. I started like this three times without success. »
Over the years and despite failed attempts, the story he wanted to tell — that of a teenager becoming a man in post-secessionist Louisiana — continued to haunt him. As with several others, it was the COVID-19 pandemic and the confinement that brought the arts and entertainment industry to a standstill that gave him the necessary latitude to carry out his project.
The gusts of Lent, which appears in bookstores on October 25, is an ambitious book, at the crossroads of a choral, historical and emancipatory novel. Inspired by a news item which shook the author’s native village in the 19th centurye century, the story transports the reader to southern Louisiana, following the Civil War. André Boudreaux, 17, discovers life, love, horses and sin from his grandfather Drozin, a southern veteran who is ready to do anything to regain his prestige and political power.
The latter’s ambitions are, however, undermined by a sordid murder in which two French people he took under his protection are suspected. The turbulent elections of 1882, as well as the prohibitionist wishes of a group of women led by his daughter-in-law – André’s mother – also put obstacles in his way.
“Inspired by Truman Capote and his novel In Cold Blood (1965), I used a news story that affected my family – a murder committed by two strangers sponsored by my great-great-grandfather – to launch myself into a fictional story. The context is real, and some of the characters are taken from my family’s memory, but afterwards, I let my imagination wander, and I let the voice of the novel guide me. »
Shades of history
For the trained historian, passionate about the history of Louisiana, the Civil War and the Paris Commune, the research leading to this abundant and in-depth story has, in some way, spanned a lifetime. “It really wasn’t difficult for me to get back into it,” he says.
Through larger than life characters, André Boudreaux and his family, but also legends such as the tragedienne Sarah Bernhardt, the hunter Buffalo Bill and the southern general Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard, Zachary Richard paints the portrait of an overwhelmed Louisiana by the influence of the Catholic Church, the backbreaking work of the land, as well as by the overtones of slavery and underlying racism.
On this subject, the author said he was keen to delve deeper into the complex and sometimes difficult relationships between Louisianans of African and European heritage beyond clichés and simplism. “We know that racism exists, but we remove a layer of humanity by reducing everything to a story of power and hatred. I wanted to expose the power dynamics that were able to establish themselves between the former masters and the former slaves after the war, the human relationships that were born from it and the possibilities of respect, friendship and even love that could emerge, despite appearances. »
Forgiveness and courage
The writer, who says he is greatly influenced by the choral style of William Faulkner, applies the same concern for nuance by giving a voice to women who, although they tirelessly suffer the consequences of a patriarchal and unequal society, stubborn to refuse conventions, to fight for the common good, for truth, for love.
“I have no feminist pretensions. I simply have to recognize that, in my family, from my experience — I think of my two grandmothers — women have always been very strong. I don’t want to fall into caricature and mythology, but it is obvious that the Acadian woman allowed society to get through the deportation and everything that followed. They protected, fed, clothed, taught while men worked or were in combat. It’s thanks to women that we exist. »
It is also through his female characters that Zachary Richard poses the main reflection of his novel: the importance of forgiveness, and the courage it requires. “The women in my story suffer the consequences of actions taken by men. However, they resist, and do not let themselves be defined by betrayals, otherwise, they would only be victims. I wanted to pay tribute to this tenacity, to this ability to overcome adversity with nobility, to the power of forgiveness. »
Given the richness of Louisiana’s history — and the many ways in which it bears witness to today’s reality — we can only be surprised that The gusts of Lent the first novel in French written by a Louisianan in almost 130 years. “Louisiana literature has already been abundant. It was ruined by the Civil War and burdened by assimilation for nearly a century. Today, we are witnessing a poetic resurgence. As Antonine Maillet says, poetry is an essential step between oral traditions and literature. The French-speaking community of Louisiana is in the process of reclaiming its literary past. I am proud to be part of it. I may be the first, but I’m not alone. I’m just a breach in the dike, and we’ll soon be flooded. »