Against a backdrop of social tension, Clara, a woman invaded by visions, tormented by love and an alcoholic, struggles to reconcile her life as a poet, mother and university professor. Unable to fit into this rigid mold and keep up with the demands of the world around her, she advances in small, painful steps towards an improbable outcome. Narrated by her son Nicolas, interspersed with poems and pages from Clara’s diary, this latest work by Éric Mathieu is a curious read. While the heroine’s reflections and her poetry are presented in a flexible and airy formula, the dry and insensitive narration given by the son is loaded with insipid dialogues, events that follow one another without fluidity. The novel is also saturated with distressing scenes of sexuality, as gratuitous as they are affected – perhaps reflecting the coldness that reigns in this dehumanized society – which tend to make one roll one’s eyes. The story is still worth reading until the finale, which, without being surprising, somewhat redeems the whole story.
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