If the word “feminicide” did not appear in Le Petit Robert that in 2015, in the sense of “murder of a woman, a girl, because of her sex”, its origins date back to the mid-17th century.e century, where the expression “to make femminicide” meant the desire of a man to brutalize a woman.
“Yes, we had lost sight of that word, even if the thing had not been lost sight of,” notes Marie Laberge, reached by telephone. “The hatred of men for women dates back to the dawn of time. Generally, a feminicide is an effort of supreme and definitive control over a woman, over his wife. For me, there are all kinds of feminicides. In Backlash, it remains that it was not so much the feminicides as all the others who die of these deaths that interests me. “
In a ladies’ clothing store on Laurier Street, a mad gunman has just killed three young women and injured a fourth. With fear, Éloi Marcoux learns from his best friend that the murderer is his twin brother and that one of the victims is Juliette Hébert, his Juliette. The very one that allowed Eloi to become a full-fledged being and not the shadow of the domestic tyrant that his brother has been from their youngest age.
“He said he was a victim of injustice. That of women, these creatures brought into the world to bring him down ”, we read in Backlash, “Serious novel, but not black”, where the words and actions of the killer are reported by his parents once he is behind bars, while the novelist explores the psyche of the various collateral victims of the killing.
“It’s very voluntary on my part: it doesn’t interest me!” I didn’t want to be in the killer’s head. I am somewhat obliged to take an interest in it because Éloi and Guillaume, Juliette’s father, want to understand what happened. It is very strange, because it is as if I had completely endorsed the position of Eloi, who knows instinctively that he must not offer his brother a visit, a word, an attention. He’s right, because that’s the only thing this guy is looking for. “
This desire to relegate the killer to the background evokes that of the media and politicians to keep silent the names of the perpetrators of killings, to no longer glorify this violence.
“For me, this is sheer helplessness. There is nothing worse than a helpless person who thinks he is strong. Especially when he has an AK-47 in his hands. We must not give it that importance, the murder must not pay off from the point of view of human vanity. There is much vanity in helplessness. There is a chasm of vanity in the murderer, especially in those who claim to be the bearer of a cause. We must stop feeding the abyss of this vanity “, believes the one who claims to have written on this subject not moved by anger, but more by” a form of indignation “.
The fury to live
Having already looked at the long and painful journey of the bereaved in Those who remain (2015), which recounts the repercussions of suicide, and Private affairs (2017), which addresses the loss of a child, Marie Laberge thinks that this desire to turn to the survivors’ side dates back to the first commemorations of the attacks of September 11, 2001.
“How many people died from these deaths?” How many people couldn’t get up? How many people will be forever disabled because they lost someone, their someone, in the towers? She remembers wondering. “For me, in calculating the horrendous consequences of murders and shootings, or even natural phenomena like a tsunami, you never calculate those who do not recover. “
“It’s like something that haunts me,” she adds. Perhaps because of all the things that enrich life, knowledge, awareness of death is one. It is not something that depresses or belittles life. On the contrary, it’s a whip to keep going, to move forward, to know how precious it is and that it is happening at breakneck speed. Maybe in all the things that give life its content, death is one of the things that makes you measure yourself against yourself, the life you have and the life choices you have. facts. “
Despite the dark and harsh topics covered in Backlash, the killer’s violent remarks against women, the horror of the carnage, the novel is nonetheless a bearer of hope and faith in humanity.
“It seems to me that life is of such strength and ferocity! We all have deaths, failures, harshness of life that strike us, but there are resources in a human being. There is always a little door to make us stronger. The novel is also an ode to friendship, true friendship, to what it can bring to life. There is also a lot of love, courage and resilience. Teresa, the mother of Sophia, one of the victims, is the embodiment of resilience. She has no lesson to teach, just a compassionate presence to offer. People who have been badly injured are often very capable of doing this. “
If she admits having done some research on twinning (“I like that there are still mysteries from a scientific point of view, that allows the novelist to take the field and be free!”), On the incelsand the dark web (“In small doses because it hurts me, it destroys me!”), Marie Laberge reveals that she relied on her sensitivity and her vision of things to imagine the suffering experienced by the families of the victims and that coupled with the guilt of the killer’s parents.
“I left, as always when I start to write, without knowing where it would take me. In my novels, I invent things, I descend into the psyche of my characters, abandon myself there. Suddenly I get a letter from someone explaining to me that this is exactly what happened to him. Finally, we are not inventing anything! “