Philippe Chagnon has authored four collections of poetry (including Water the asphalt) before publishing his first two novels in quick succession in 2019, The tip (Triptych), then The salad spinner (Hammock).
Posted at 6:00 p.m.
The writing of this autodidact is forged by the often very insignificant events of a daily life that seems devoid of meaning. However, he tells it with great detail and a detachment that gives the whole a quality that is at once absurd, wacky and slightly surreal. But between the lines always broods, implicitly, an existential malaise, a drama even, of which the narrator like the reader does not always manage to grasp the ins and outs. With Backwardsa story playing with the codes of autofiction and thriller, it’s a family drama that unfolds before our eyes.
The narrator, an aspiring writer in search of inspiration, must return to the family home as his grandfather is dying, leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend. An increasingly shady chain of events over which he seems to have no control – a mysterious envelope that he picks up at the hospital and is wanted to take back from him, a tattoo indicating no good, the his grandfather’s blonde and his shenanigans – drag him into the turmoil, giving him at the same time material for a novel which does not succeed, on which he is working. As a result, the story, seemingly banal, gradually becomes anxiety-provoking, blurring perceptions and landmarks. Skillfully, the author plays with the narrative structure and temporality, setting up the mise en abyme; like a snake biting its tail, the beginning becomes the end, and vice versa. A well-crafted novel, quite strange, carried by a singular pen.
Backwards
Philippe Chagnon
Hammock
152 pages