During the day, Laurel, a journalist for an interior design magazine, visits the homes of well-known personalities, who explain to her how the little nest they have created reflects their personality. At night, Laurel, motherless and who recently broke up with Jon, wanders the streets of Montreal or goes to party with friends, who talk about their philosophy of life or well-being.
“It’s not a novel that I wanted to be autobiographical, says Laurence Pelletier about her first book, Laurel at night. There is no biographical element, except the fact that I live in Montreal, that I have already been in love, that I have experienced breakups and that I write columns for literature and art magazines. I was going through a breakup, and I wanted to understand what persists after the breakup, what pursues us, what chases us as an emotion, what holds us back from moving forward and connecting with others. »
Every time Laurel returns to her apartment, it’s stronger than her, she has to go back and explore other places, let herself be dazed by the music, by the alcohol, by her attempts to get in touch with others. She notably meets Andreas, with whom she has been living an impossible love for years, Salman, a friend who delights in cynicism, and Jessica, a new friend who wishes her too much good.
“The idea of wandering and the loss of meaning for me has also been linked to this experience of rupture, which disturbs, which upsets a person when she experiences it, continues the one who teaches literature and feminist studies at CEGEP and university. This idea was the starting point that anchored the rest of Laurel’s story and adventures. It’s as if the romantic break-up had repercussions or reproduced itself in other scenes where the protagonist is incapable of creating links, of becoming attached, where the words of the others become a little hollow, evanescent. »
voices in the night
If we don’t laugh till we slap our thighs while reading Laurel at nightan atmospheric novel where we let ourselves be delighted by the cynical reflections of the narrator and her almost somnambulistic peregrinations, we have to admit that several dialogues, delivered in bulk without the speakers being identified, forming an incoherent suite evoking the game of the exquisite corpse, make us smile more than once.
“Part of me wanted you to feel the loneliness in the crowd, that impossibility of constructing a coherent story from one sentence to another. When I was writing the novel, it was the pandemic; the only way to connect with others was often through text messages or stories Instagram. There was a lot of anxiety in the air and a lot of solutions, truths that were offered to us on these platforms. Everything seemed to want to respond to a common, ambient, cultural anxiety. For me, there was a great doubt, a great suspicion, a refusal to adhere to it. »
Faced with this often empty rhetoric, Laurel sometimes prefers to remain silent, wondering how far people will go in their hazy arguments, if they really believe in the theories they advance or if they are not building a boat for him.
“It’s as if my experiences in the social world, where the small talk is appropriate, where we are a bit on automatic pilot, where there is no sincere content, allowed me to touch on this gap between the content and the form of the words. I think the protagonist really tries to make sense of things in these words that can intimidate us, impress us, fascinate us, in this distance in which we are always in relation to the world that speaks this language. »
In these dialogues, which form a background noise in Laurel’s nocturnal escapades, everyone’s loneliness is also expressed, a desire to stand out, to be heard, to project an image that does not necessarily reflect reality. In short, to impress the gallery.
“In the novel, there is a ‘palace of mirrors’ aspect where we walk around, where everyone is performing. What happens when you take off the mask? We reveal the horrible, cruel part? Laurel is not necessarily a pleasant person; she is very aloof, sometimes a little snobbish. There was something about these little social encounters that I liked and that I also like to find in literature, in social novels, which are a little vain. I read Françoise Sagan a lot; this slightly light tone, but also very serious, greatly nourished the writing. There is a whole myth, an imaginary that is linked to this writer’s life that I was trying to touch, to grasp. »
Words of love
While every character Laurel meets seems to play a role, what about the role she plays with Jon? Why can’t she finally break up? Why does she make him dangle the hope of giving their couple a second chance? After all, doesn’t he have the arrogance to believe that deep down, she wants to reconnect with him?
“We talk a lot about gaslighting at the moment and through the character of Jon, I wanted to show how far this manipulation of language went. There is a weakness or a fatigue in Laurel, who is tempted to let herself be taken in by these words. It would be relaxing if someone knew what we needed for us. Jon pretends to know what’s good for Laurel. Perhaps he is benevolent in this desire, but he is very insistent, harassing to the limit. I think the breakup creates those extremes. How do you use language to make it effective when you want to hold someone back or get away from them? It’s a bit like this quest that animates Laurel’s stroll. »
Despite the awkward message he sends to Laurel, the novelist defends the behavior of Jon, whom she did not design as a toxic character: “I think it’s the breakup that makes us say or do things that make us really pitiful, really ugly, that humiliate us. His behavior may seem toxic, but the relationship is not. Maybe it would have been something else if she had wanted to resume. I see this message more as a gesture of desperation, a desperate attempt to hold on, to convince the other to come back. »
Basically, what prevents Laurel from finding Jon is the hope of seeing Andreas reappear waiting for her in front of her house…
“It’s the consistency in the novel, from the beginning, always, until the end. Maybe that love is the only beacon in the night, in this mist that surrounds Laurel. Andreas was there with her, for her, without ever offering her solutions to her discomfort. There is a real sentimental search that is made throughout the novel. It was still important for me not to just stay in cynicism where we would wallow in each other. Laurel uses cynicism as a shield, a means of defence. Fortunately, in the end, the defenses fall,” concludes Laurence Pelletier, who will soon publish the essay. female nudity (PUM).