In The thirst that I haveMarc-André Dufour-Labbé never stops believing in his alcoholic narrator, a little bum with a big heart.
Boucher is one of those prisoners from another era, in whom the only music that plays comes from the Black Album from Metallica or the first Rage Against the Machine. In other words: Boucher is one of those for whom it is impossible not to have a little tenderness.
But for a guy who’s listened so often Know Your Enemy, Boucher is not very good at identifying his own, that is to say the person who, every day after brushing, appears to him in the mirror. Single father of little Flavie, this bum from bad family is out of breath, although never short of new bottles in which to find the courage to continue.
First novel for an adult readership by Marc-André Dufour-Labbé (after Checked Kida children’s book, in 2023), The thirst that I have tells the absurd daily life of a man unlucky by birth, whose heart is as big as his capacity to deny that sadness threatens to swallow him.
Of party in partyfrom hangover to hangover, from calamitous decision to calamitous decision, the dad who does his best fights to give an image of himself inseparable from a certain conception of masculinity according to which being a man, it is to remain impervious to everything, including the tragic death of his lover.
In a language that stirs, testifying well to the richness of a seemingly poor Frenchman, The thirst that I have therefore renews certain clichés to better deconstruct them, by showing how emotional misery is a spiral from which it is difficult to escape, but also by having faith in that it is possible to become a good father, even if one’s own has completely failed in his task.
Allergic to downtime, Marc-André Dufour-Labbé does not always know how to resist the addition of yet another adventure flirting with melodrama, which we quickly forget, as the essence of this novel lies in its gallery of characters , as singular as they are familiar, starting with these little old people to whom his narrator visits out of charity (and to sell them something to get high).
His lack of judgment towards Boucher and his boyfriendswhom he could easily have portrayed as idiotic, gives this tragedy full of phrases that make you laugh the look of a master class in empathy.
The thirst that I have
The Horse of August
152 pages