When her father dies, Marie finds herself, in spite of herself, the owner of a collection of Quebec antiquities of little value: obsolete furniture and objects, for which her father gave his whole life, often to the detriment of his relationship. with his daughter. The will is clear: to receive her inheritance, Marie must “dispose of the patrimonial assets in a morally responsible manner”.
However, in the era of the click, the interest in heritage, as in all that is durable and tangible, is in decline. Suffocated by the weight of her father’s legacy, Marie will quickly find herself torn apart by the polarization of a world with increasingly opposing values. Pushed in all directions by a spouse who swears only by technology, an old friend who has become a survivalist and an antique dealer attached to history, the heroine will have to find her roots elsewhere than in flight, progress or denial.
In broad beans (Stanké, 2017), her first novel, Alexandra Gilbert initiated a reflection on the return home as a trigger for awareness, while its protagonist had to deal, after a humanitarian trip to Afghanistan, with the prejudices of the West and its myth of the white savior.
Obsolete, which appears these days in bookstores, once again shakes up the reader’s beliefs and values, this time focusing on the decisions and mechanical actions that punctuate his daily life. Through the mourning of its protagonist, it questions a way of life connected to everything except reality, where planned obsolescence influences our relationship to goods as much as to other humans.
Alexandra Gilbert brings to the surface questions, doubts and contradictions that inhabit – in a corner of their minds – anyone who becomes aware of the excesses of a humanity that is running straight to its loss.
Encumbered by too many details and rehashed criticism, the writer fails to move her thoughts in a clear direction, raising a multitude of related but vast and complex themes, including excessive consumption, climate change , transhumanism and survivalism.
The whole thing sometimes takes on the appearance of a personal development book. Her character, Marie, will ultimately find redemption in the break that everyone hopes for themselves without trying too hard, in slowing down and paying attention to the essentials, in this unique space where the birth of a bond is possible.
This moralizing tone does not, however, prevent the author from partially reaching her target: that of pausing in the mind of the reader, perhaps realizing the speed at which life scrolls without anything lasting long enough to leave a mark. Whether the lesson survives the next viral hashtag remains to be seen.