Yves Beauchemin

A great novel about corruption, greed, government, and everything involving Québec and Montréal. This is the first Beauchemin novel that I've read and I was very impressed by the sardonic wit that was established here. I felt that the novelist was very profound, comical, and intricate in his detailing the lives of his characters that can even serve as epitomes of what they represent. Additionally, the vocabulary that this novelist has is very sophisticated and complex and allows for glimpses into the world of Jerome in such a way as to accentuate his thoughts, feelings, and perceptions.

Overall, a great book. 4 stars!… (altro)

> Le livre de l’automne littéraire. Un livre événement.
—(Didier Fessou, Le Soleil)

> C’est un livre très délicieux à lire, parce qu’on retrouve le meilleur de Beauchemin.
J’ai beaucoup, beaucoup aimé ça.
—(Jean Fugère, Radio-Canada)

> Chaque page est […] vibrante de rebondissements, jamais ennuyante, toujours palpitante de confidences. Charles le téméraire s’avère une fresque remarquable.
(Paul-François Sylvestre, L’Express de Toronto)

> L’auteur du Matou au sommet de son art, claironne la quatrième de couverture. Eh bien, pour une fois, on n’a pas exagéré.
—(Marie-Claude Fortin, La Presse)… (altro)

Florent has a dull job as salesman for a record company in Quebec. He's always wanted to own a restaurant. One day an act of kindness to a stranger on the street attracts the attention of an elderly wealthy man, who puts him on the path to buy a local restaurant. Florent is thrilled but baffled at his benefactor's intentions. As the restaurant changes hands and Florent with his young wife and several friends work to get things running smoothly, strange incidents begin to occur. Several of which threaten to ruin their budding restaurant business. Eventually it throws them into poverty, and Florent must search out other means to make a living. He tries his hand at various business ventures, but every time the old man crops up again, seems to have his hands behind everything. It gets very convoluted and distressing. Florent starts finding connections between all kinds of disparate people in his life, and just when things start to look up again and they think the strange benefactor has disappeared, the creepy old man shows up yet again. Eventually Florent does manage to establish his own restaurant again, and his conflict with the old man reaches a drastic conclusion.

This is a strange book. I almost put it down several times, but the story kept taking interesting turns, even though I couldn't always follow the intrigue. As events progressed it got more laughs out of me, and a lot of puzzlement as well. It's one of those books I might read again, just to see if I can figure it all out. The more I think about it, the more I actually like it.

more at the Dogear Diary… (altro)

To me, this book was about the ambiguity in what it means to be a good person and to do good deeds. The main character, Guillaume Tranchemontagne, hits middle age and wants to reform his way from being a capitalist, concerned mainly with business and profit to being someone who nurtures his relationships, values the people in his life and does good deeds. He finds that the repercussions of doing these things can`t be anticipated accurately.

I think I was expecting more of a plot twist at the end (I mean even more so than what did happen) and, in the moment, the ending seemed a bit anti-climactic. But, really, it was a thoroughly appropriate ending.… (altro)