I must admit, I had never heard of Suzanne Noel. Doctor specializing in facial reconstruction of “broken mouths” during the 2 wars and feminist before the hour, Suzanne Noel is the subject of a magnificent book, in 2 volumes, in the form of a comic strip, entitled “A mains nues” and published by Les arènes BD. The texts are signed Leïla Slimani (Prix Goncourt 2016) and the illustrations, the graphics, Clément Oubrerie.
We discover the work, even the stubbornness, to impose itself in the essentially male world of science, with an incredible talent. She doesn’t just learn her profession as a doctor, a surgeon! She even creates the instruments which are necessary for it to operate more precisely, such as the craniometer, still in use nowadays and develops reconstruction techniques.
Widow during WW1, she remarried with a love of youth until this man did not commit suicide in 1924. For the drama to be total, she loses her only daughter of the Spanish flu in 1922. It looks like Zola, but it is the tragic fate of this brilliant woman, which pushes her to invest body and soul in her vocation.
So much for the presentation of the heroine of this comic, who received, incidentally, The Legion of Honor in 1928.
And so it is his story that we follow in this comic, his journey, an era, beautifully told by Leïla Slimani who fell in love with this woman whose obsession was to free herself from the yoke of men.
Note the superb illustrations by Clément Oubrerie, which bring Suzanne Noel to life. 2 volumes, and we could devote a third to him as his life is so fascinating.
Do not miss it, it is a magnificent biography a bit fictionalized that I invite you to discover.