Adopting the rhythm of the seasons, learning to do nothing, taming boredom, taking naps at work or puzzles at home… I have written a lot about the importance of taking your time this year.
Although the pressure to perform has been worrying (and swallowing) me for a long time, I don’t think I’ve ever observed it so much. Yet once again I arrive at summer out of breath.
There is a change, though. I think I’m more aware of why my batteries are dead. Above all, I feel that I am more responsible for my fatigue. In the sense that I consciously chose to embark on projects that made me happy, proud and, yes, tired. Thanks to the wise people interviewed in the last few months, I have learned to think about my limits, whether to narrow the playing field or explode it.
Sometimes, being out of breath is being fulfilled.
It is obviously an immense privilege to be able to choose your cruising speed. I wish we could all have a say in what exhausts us, but I know that the majority of us are under pressure over which we have little control. There are then crumbs of rest to grab here and there.
My favorite tool at that time: literature.
I would therefore like to dedicate this last column before the summer holidays to recent titles which have allowed me to better understand our world or to think about my own future. If you have some time to spare, I am hopeful that they will be able to feed you too.
Because we’re all going to die…
The grandmother of Sarah Desrosiers, suffering from leukemia, requested medical assistance in dying before canceling her request, preferring to know “her beautiful death”. The author documented everything, offering a fabulously authentic story that immerses us in the long life of a CHSLD.
In His beautiful death (Hamac), Sarah Desrosiers reports her many weekly visits to her grandmother. If the goal is to enjoy the remaining days, the fact is that they don’t always have much to say to each other. Throughout the pages, we see the banality of routine even when death looms, the guilt of those who will remain, the tenderness that unites a family and the desire to be elsewhere. As unspeakable as it may be.
His beautiful death makes us think about our own finitude, but also about our relationship with our elders. What nuances are there between the figure of the great sage and that of the cannonball placed in residence?
His beautiful death
Hammock
320 pages
Because there are women…
My reading of the book The unsightly (Quebec America) left me shocked, galvanized and deeply moved. With these three stories inspired by her journey, Claudia Larochelle immerses us in sovereign friendships, a world of work eaten away by sexism and unhealthy loves. Here, cruelty rubs shoulders with lucidity. The author directly names many of the discomforts and violence that women suffer. While reading it, a sentence taken from the film The night of the 12th came to mind: “There is a problem between men and women. »
Mind you, there can also be problems between women when misogyny is internalized. The passages about a certain tyrannical boss demonstrate this.
It remains that The unsightly is a love letter to sisterhood. It makes you want to be better for yourself and for your colleagues. It also makes you want to kick into the void.
The unsightly
Collection III, Quebec America
136 pages
Because we love…
Speaking of being better for yourself and others, Sex, sexo, sexu! (Trécarré) is a perfect book for thinking about intimacy. Sexologist Myriam Daguzan Bernier touches on an impressive number of subjects including affirmation, performance pressure and LGBTQ2SIA+ realities… She also answers questions such as: Are we in competition with sex toys? Or: How to make friends as an adult? In short, she casts a wide net.
I enjoyed discovering several historical facts throughout the chapters, giving me an informed look at current issues. For example, toilets and their gender: “According to Barbara Penner, architectural historian and author of the book Bathroombefore the 18the century, we eliminated our droppings in groups and side by side. »
(I really like our era.)
Sex, sexo, sexu!
Trecarré
304 pages
Because nature…
In the poetry department, a big favorite for Cariacou: hunting manual for poets (editions of Ta Mère), by Olivier Lussier. I have never killed an animal or written verse, yet I loved every page of this collection. It allows us, with frankness and a touch of humor, to grasp both the violence and the serenity of the hunt. When reading Olivier Lussier, we want to escape into the woods or at least watch time pass.
Hunting or not, we say to ourselves that it might be worth thinking about our place in the world, one season per year.
Cariacou
Editions de Ta Mère
160 pages
Because it happened…
With Ice cubes like glass (Flammarion Québec), by Isabelle Picard, I found the 14-year-old Rose-Aimée. The one who fell in love with Gabrielle, Adelaide And Florence. The one who refused to put down Marie Laberge’s books, too anxious to discover the fate of these characters immersed in a historical drama.
In Isabelle Picard’s family saga, the drama is the 1960s Scoop. At the time, several Indigenous families saw their members scattered all over the province, helpless. The author draws inspiration from her family’s history to trace the destiny of three generations marked by this imposed heartbreak.
The novel highlights wounds which, as we can well imagine, remain to be healed among many of our fellow citizens. Isabelle Picard’s characters, all in nuance, invite an empathy that it would be sad to do without these days…
Ice cubes like glass
Flammarion Quebec
196 pages
See you in the fall. Until then, I wish you rest, thousands of words and some enlightenment.