Manu, 36, is a mother like so many. One day, like so many others before her, exhausted from running after his cock, prisoner of a life she hasn’t exactly chosen, she breaks down.
Known story? Not quite. Next to the tracklatest novel by Karine Glorieux (Miss Tic Tac) published these days by Quebec America, is certainly in line with several other texts on the great fatigue of women. A heavy trend and not exactly joyful – we think of On the edgeby Véronique Grenier, or In the land of quiet despair by Marie-Pierre Duval – which the author nevertheless approaches with a daring angle: humour.
When she proposed the project to her publisher, Karine Glorieux even sold it as such: “It’s a comedy about burnout ! »
Indeed, we laugh a lot reading the misadventures of this perfectly imperfect mother, torn between her “disheveled” superego and her counterpart ” wannabe-zen”. She blunders, drinks too much, and blunders again. And not halfway. But several aspects of his slip, his questions about the mental load of women (why does depression affect twice as many women as men?) and his heartfelt cry about his fatigue ring a little too true not to have a solid background of true. “Yes, I’m tired,” said the narrator. Tired of being a single mother, self-employed, relentless worker, but slacker in the soul, and to notice that my face wrinkles a little more at the end of each of the days that I have not seen pass. »
The taboo of depression
Met last week, Karine Glorieux (to whom we owe the collective My first time), whom we have interviewed often enough to know that she runs half-marathons like the Manu in her novel, but probably not enough to know the underside of her mental health, confirms: “It’s not my story , she says, but there are bits that are very true. »
She is neither a single mother nor self-employed (she teaches literature at CEGEP), but yes, Karine Glorieux also experienced a real “panic attack” a few years ago. She, too, suffered from “adjustment disorder”, and at first refused treatment. Ah yes, and she too, she left on a “nowhere” to see elsewhere if she was there (in Florida, by car and on a whim). And no, she had never officially spoken about it before.
Why, exactly? Because the taboo. Because the stigma. Especially when you have a parent who has been there. “I had always said to myself: me, it will never happen to me, she confides. And when it happened to me, I was a little ashamed. Difficulty talking about it. Difficulty that she overcame by seeing her children grow up and become adults in their turn.
This is the book I wanted when I was depressed. I would have liked someone to tell me: hehe, it’s okay, you’ll get through it, and you can even laugh about it!
Karine Glorieux, author
And she dares to laugh about it throughout the 243 pages of the story, rich in twists and turns of all kinds. “Laughing allows you to distance yourself from a situation,” she says. And you can laugh about almost anything. […] Having self-mockery is a first step towards healing. »
Ah good ? “When you can make fun of yourself, you can take things more lightly and decide to change them. »
And Karine Glorieux knows what she is talking about. “That’s it, the burnout : everything takes on enormous importance, even the most trivial things, she illustrates. Folding laundry becomes as important as caring for a sick father. Laughing gives you the opportunity to say to yourself: maybe it’s not that important! »
And this tone also dominates the whole text. Moreover, she does not hide it: “It’s a novel that I wanted to be optimistic. In her Manu’s existential quest, in search of who she once was and what she has lost with life, years, and motherhood, several important links emerge: with her children, of course, but also her parents, her friends, and a meeting with an older woman, who was particularly formative. “And those connections are super important. And we women are good at creating them. »
Not moralizing for two pennies, Karine Glorieux still wanted her Manu to end up finding herself, and this, in particular thanks to her medication. “She takes her bloody antidepressants, yes,” she concludes. She is able to get by, but not alone. And that’s okay. It’s okay to have help. ” Spread the word. And we laugh about it.
Next to the track
Karine Glorious
Quebec America
243 pages