Les années-rebours

Bitter sweetness

A very beau­ti­ful and ten­der book from Que­bec. Guy Verville has been crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed there. And it is true that this sto­ry, that of Rémi, who lives soft­ly in an ordi­nary rela­tion­ship, and who will wan­der in the saunas and on the net to spice up his dai­ly life, touch­es you.

It’s a lit­tle bit bit­ter­sweet, but after all, that’s how life is, isn’t it ?

Blue Book Paris (2004/08/01)

An excellent novel

Rémi, a bak­er of his con­di­tion, lives a love that has fall­en into every­day life with Vic­tor. This has not pre­vent­ed him from get­ting stuck with just about all the men around him and he sud­den­ly feels a cer­tain weari­ness invad­ing him.

Does he deserve more than Vic­tor or is he sim­ply not able to rec­og­nize his hap­pi­ness ? Should he resist the advances of Luc, the hus­band of a life­long friend ? What about Stéphane, that ladies’ escort she met in a sauna that unex­pect­ed­ly upset her ? A nov­el with com­plex and tor­ment­ed char­ac­ters, but which nev­er falls into pathos. The author, Guy Verville, also knows how to sprin­kle a dose of humour into his sto­ry (even if he some­times pours a lit­tle into the caboti­nage). Most read­ers will undoubt­ed­ly rec­og­nize them­selves in Rémi’s jour­ney, and we can only wel­come in pass­ing a mas­tery of writ­ing that brings us clos­er to the char­ac­ters and their mean­ders by small touch­es, while pre­serv­ing their share of mys­tery. The whole thing might have deserved a tighter treat­ment, but, all in all, here is an excel­lent nov­el that will touch more than one. An author to fol­low closely !

Benoit Migneault, Fugues (2004/04/21)

Realism and openness

Guy Verville’s most recent nov­el, Les Années-rebours pub­lished by Édi­tions Varia, could eas­i­ly have fall­en into the trap of the cliché since all the pre­con­ceived ideas about gays are present : sauna vis­its, anony­mous sex, erot­ic chats, infi­deli­ty, etc. How­ev­er, the author has such a mas­tery of his art that his way of telling us about the life of Rémi, this man whose mar­ried life hard­ly sur­vives the wear and tear of the days, can only sur­prise us with his real­ism and his frank­ness. Thanks to the Inter­net, the author has con­tributed so much to his text that he has giv­en us a fair­ly accu­rate por­trait of gay life.

La Voix du Village (2004/04/21)

Sublime!

What a nov­el ani­mat­ed by the breath of genius ! Rémi’s sto­ry is like­ly to upset many peo­ple, because Verville, through his tal­ent as a writer, was able to extract the essen­tial human feel­ings and tell us sub­tly through one of these char­ac­ters, as if to get us out of our inse­cu­ri­ties and wor­ries : “Coudonc, wake up ! “So, Rémi has been liv­ing with Vic­tor for many years, but the pas­sion is no longer there. Rémi then seeks to sat­is­fy his unful­filled desires (here we mean emo­tion­al and sex­u­al) through encoun­ters in saunas and chat rooms on the Inter­net. He meets Stéphane who dis­turbs his heart. Then there is Luc, the hus­band of a friend, with whom he had adven­tures. He thinks he loves her. He thinks he still loves Vic­tor too. Do you see the pic­ture ? Remi is around us but also with­in us.

I loved this nov­el because it chal­lenges us and chal­lenges us with this sim­ple ques­tion : why com­pli­cate life with our love sto­ries ? Espe­cial­ly since Vic­tor, on his side, noticed the cou­ple’s fail­ure, but he did­n’t tell Rémi about it. Well, the man who does­n’t speak, unknown to you ? I also loved Luci­enne, this friend­ly and charm­ing woman from the coun­try­side, who does­n’t hes­i­tate to brew Rémi. Like the neigh­bour Irene, capa­ble of unimag­in­able feats despite her ill­ness and who, in her own way, shakes up Remi’s opin­ions and assumptions.

Verville’s text is full of reflec­tions on rela­tion­ships, love and friend­ship. Above all, we must not do with­out this won­der­ful read­ing offered by Verville. Sublime !

Richard Chartier, RG (2004/07/01)