As he is about to fall asleep, “lying so well at full length in the clover”, in the shade of the cherry tree, “where the temperature [est] ideal for short naps”, Jacominus remembers “a wonderful thing” which he promises to tell to his friend Policarpe who is expected for supper. Then begins a journey into the heart of memory where each of the two friends will retrace the course of the days in order to capture – if possible – their evanescence.
Rébecca Dautremer has her own way of telling the story of the passing of time. Focusing on the details that fill everyday life, that stick to it and create what will become a memory, the French author and illustrator wants to tell the story of life above all. From the Hautes-Alpes, her parents’ haunt where she stayed for a few days, Dautremer entrusts us with gentleness and conviction with the very simple, but very fundamental, desire to recount our passage on Earth with its share of encounters, regrets, expectations, disappointments, happiness, misfortunes, until old age and the inevitable death. Red thread, if there is one, which participates inA wonderful thing, published by Sarbacane, but also from the entire Jacominus series. “It seems like a big theme, but it was my will. Share a vision of life that is peaceful and happy […] The taste for life in its modesty, in its pleasure of experiencing simple things with immense happiness. To be amazed at the beauty of things in the most difficult times. It seems like a big catechism lesson, it seems a bit enormous, but it’s as simple as that.”
And if the passing of time contributes to this A wonderful thing, he has lived with the author for a long time. Difficult, she confides on screen, to talk about other things since without time “there would be no stories”. Without being nostalgic, she says she is fascinated by the evanescence of things because “it’s the essence of life.” […] Knowing that stories in the past have been able to influence the present – like family secrets, buried memories, things forgotten, but which nevertheless shape the present – I find that is something that is really fascinating. And that we don’t have much control over our present. Everything was built on the foundations of our past and it’s magical and frightening at the same time.”
Hear the memory
A wonderful thing is registered following the Rich Hours of Jacominus Gainsborough, Noon And A tiny second, three titles which feature the little rabbit and his world, but without ever presenting him in the same object. First there was a large classic format in which portraits of the hero were displayed, scenes like so many seasons crossed by Jacominus, then a book-object, as delicate as lace, made of cutouts, then a leporello unfolding over two meters and, finally, this book-disc, a three-dimensional sensory album. In what she calls her anti-series, Dautremer challenges herself to never do the same thing twice. And in this case, the sound really came from the start. A primer around which words and illustrations are grafted. “I said to myself: ‘I’m going to talk about the emergence of memory and I’m going to leave time, double pages where there will be no text so that we can observe the image at the same time as we go listen to these slightly distorted sounds of a buried memory.” The story was designed like that, for the pleasure of having the evocation of a slightly strange, slightly vague memory,” she explains. The story is thus offered to see and hear in a dimension which sometimes comes close to a dream, inscribed in the memories of the characters where we can hear the sounds of war, just like those comforting ones of an inhabited kitchen. Dautremer offers scenes that go beyond the simple accompaniment of the text, of the decorative image. Each memory told by the characters is presented in three stages. A first in which the two heroes on a white background stand on chairs, pensive, then on a double page without text from which emerges the flow of a foggy memory. This same illustration follows on the next page, but presented in a clear manner, revealing the memory more concretely.
Address the whole family
Like these sophisticated illustrations, she signs a dense and poetic text in which all the confidence she has in the intelligence of her reader shines through. She also says she doesn’t like to limit herself in her vocabulary and syntax. “However, I know the difficulty that little ones can have. I also try to hook them through the staging of my characters, in particular this big bull who crushes his chair little by little and who collapses, witness to the passing of time. It’s something that will allow them to follow the story in that way. There are several reading levels. »
She also favors anthropomorphic animals, a particular way of better identifying and characterizing her characters. “With animals, it’s more fun. They have feathers, hair, horns, trunks, beaks. Human beings almost always have their nose in the middle of their face. It’s not that funny. And this parallel world, of characters with animal heads, allows me to depict themes that would be too harsh if they were human beings. » A way of doing things which takes nothing away from the identification or at least from the feeling that the reader will experience. On this subject, she evokes the memory of an old man who had “complained a lot” about Jacominus’s clothes when he left for the battlefield. “He told me that it was not at all the costume that the poilus had during the war, not the right pants, not the right color, etc. But he didn’t point out to me at all that it was a rabbit going to war. That didn’t bother him. It’s funny ! » Young and old are thus invited by the author to share and exchange this Awesome thing “because there are considerations about the passage of time which may affect adults more, or in any case which will not affect them in the same way and that allows for dialogue between generations,” she concludes.