If Michel-Maxime Legault had been called Michelin, everything would have been different. In any case, this is what the author enjoys imagining in this eloquent autobiographical monologue where he traces the contours of the life that his double would have led.
What would have become of him if he had followed the other path, that of corresponding to the expectations of his environment? In this work which touches the heart, it is a question of rurality, homosexuality and masculinity, but also of art and animals. The one who “launched into culture to escape agriculture” sporadically recounts his childhood spent on a farm in Saint-Polycarpe, naming cows with actresses’ names and introspecting.
We get to know his colorful family, from the “schizophrenic sister who was in her right mind” to the “jealousy brother”, including the mother with the funny expressions. “Where are you going when your name was supposed to be Michelin, you’re not taking over the family farm, you have a degree on the line and you won’t have purebred children? », asks Michel-Maxime Legault. Sprinkled with refreshing reflections on the social classes of a farmer’s son among the “theatre makers”, Michelin is a gem of humor that can be read in one go and which nevertheless does not fail to shake you.
Michelin
Quartz
93 pages