After Montreal Northcomedian Mariana Mazza takes us in this second novel to Rivière-des-Prairies, where her family moves to a house bought by her stepfather around the time she enters high school.
It is from this “hut” that she will make the endless bus journey to get to her high school in Montreal North.
One year at a time – and without ever missing an opportunity to laugh at herself – she looks back on those years when she first tasted what would become her obsession: performance and spectacle. From dancing to soccer, the teenager who does not hide her “extravagant” energy will seek to belong to a group where she could shine, within a multicultural world where she cannot quite fit in — nor enough Latina nor Arab enough to claim membership in one group or the other.
Through these questions which appear implicitly, we end up finding the meaning of his inextinguishable quest for attention. From her friendships to her first kiss, including some tasty anecdotes involving her mother (always quick to bring her back to earth), we laugh often, and we also travel with her to Uruguay, where she met for the first time, at 15 years old, his father’s family disappeared.
Even if the formula becomes exhausted at times, to the point of seeming repetitive towards the end, we are always in good company with this girl who thrives on attention and whom we sometimes just want to hug.
Rivière-des-Prairies
Quebec America
280 pages