[Critique] “Going up the North”, Jean-Louis Courteau

After the collection sixteen islands, poetic incursions under the tormented and mysterious waters of the lake of the same name, Jean-Louis Courteau sinks, for his first novel, into the shadows, the silences and the coldness of the North. With the amazed eyes of a painter, the author walks the paths to the rhythm of his memories, lets himself be guided by the order and chaos of nature, walking backwards in the footsteps of his father, Jack the woodsman, to identify parts of his heritage. In a flower of frost, the tinkling of a stream or the sneer of a wolverine, he finds clues to the history that has forged his soul and his gaze. Jean-Louis Courteau reminds us that to preserve what is most dear to us, we must first slow down, reconnect with the movements of the territory and the purity of the emotions that hatch there. Contemplative novel more than narrative, Go up north seems to take many unnecessary detours, but in fact requires nothing more than letting go of walks in the forest.

Go up north

★★★

Jean-Louis Courteau, XYZ, Montreal, 2023, 224 pages

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