Scan barcode
A review by justabean_reads
The Future by Catherine Leroux
5.0
In a francophone Fort Détroit that neither the British nor the Americans conquered, and that culturally looks to Montreal and Paris rather than New York or London, things have begun to fall apart. Infrastructure and municipal services have started to collapse, and corporations, crime and neighbourhood groups fill the gaps.
A woman moves to the city following the murder of her daughter, trying to find out what happened, and to locate her missing grandchildren. She meets her gardening collective neighbours; she struggles to come to terms with the truth as she discovers it. Meanwhile, a group of orphan and runaway children have formed a society that hides in the park and scavenges from the city. Meanwhile, an environmental disaster looms. Meanwhile, magic is real.
There's a lot going on! The first section of the book is told from the point of view of the woman, the second the same events from the point of view of the kids in the park, the third concluding the plot by alternating between pretty much everyone we've met so far. It's slow, character-focused, and very beautiful. I love how the community elements show people who don't even like each other managing to pull together when needed, even if they argue every step of the way. I love how much it involves that what one character thinks a good solution being the opposite of what works for someone else. I love how multi-racial and queer the story was, and how much of it was about the suppression of those histories, which are being constantly retold and reinterpreted.
We had some discussion my book group about why it's a French alternate history, and what about the book is specifically French rather than just a slightly post-apoca version of the Detroit in our world. My theories (having read no author interviews) are that a) the author is French and wanted to write in French and also wanted to write about Detroit, b) the book it felt Quebecois in its voice and characters, especially the gardening collective crowd, c) I don't speak enough French to tell, but I think that we lost something in translation (though no fault of the translator!). The children speak an argot that's a Lost Boys mix of non-standard grammar, malapropisms and newly created words that I think the translator struggled with, but in French would've had a stronger sense of relationship with French Canada and its history. Fort Détroit had its own history, and its own place and mood, and a story told there couldn't have been told in Montreal or Moncton or any other part of French Canada, and that's an important part of the story too.
Anyway, I'm doing a lousy job of talking about how much I liked this, but it was great! I hope to find time for the author's back catalogue at some point; I have a couple friends who love The Party Wall.
A woman moves to the city following the murder of her daughter, trying to find out what happened, and to locate her missing grandchildren. She meets her gardening collective neighbours; she struggles to come to terms with the truth as she discovers it. Meanwhile, a group of orphan and runaway children have formed a society that hides in the park and scavenges from the city. Meanwhile, an environmental disaster looms. Meanwhile, magic is real.
There's a lot going on! The first section of the book is told from the point of view of the woman, the second the same events from the point of view of the kids in the park, the third concluding the plot by alternating between pretty much everyone we've met so far. It's slow, character-focused, and very beautiful. I love how the community elements show people who don't even like each other managing to pull together when needed, even if they argue every step of the way. I love how much it involves that what one character thinks a good solution being the opposite of what works for someone else. I love how multi-racial and queer the story was, and how much of it was about the suppression of those histories, which are being constantly retold and reinterpreted.
We had some discussion my book group about why it's a French alternate history, and what about the book is specifically French rather than just a slightly post-apoca version of the Detroit in our world. My theories (having read no author interviews) are that a) the author is French and wanted to write in French and also wanted to write about Detroit, b) the book it felt Quebecois in its voice and characters, especially the gardening collective crowd, c) I don't speak enough French to tell, but I think that we lost something in translation (though no fault of the translator!). The children speak an argot that's a Lost Boys mix of non-standard grammar, malapropisms and newly created words that I think the translator struggled with, but in French would've had a stronger sense of relationship with French Canada and its history. Fort Détroit had its own history, and its own place and mood, and a story told there couldn't have been told in Montreal or Moncton or any other part of French Canada, and that's an important part of the story too.
Anyway, I'm doing a lousy job of talking about how much I liked this, but it was great! I hope to find time for the author's back catalogue at some point; I have a couple friends who love The Party Wall.