The A26
Pascal Garnier; Melanie Florence (translator)
Gallic Books, Apr 7 2015, $12.95
www.gallicbooks.com
ISBN: 9781908313164
By 1976 long time rail worker Bernard
knows he is dying. He regrets what could
have been with his friend Jacqueline,
married to an abusive husband, if he romantically courted her instead of
remaining loyally protective of his lunatic
sister Yolande. Still old habits has
Bernard worrying about what will happen to crazy Yolande when he dies; as she
still believes WWII is still going on and has not left their Picardy cluttered
cottage they reside in since 1945 when their neighbors vilified her for being a
Nazi collaborator.
However, Bernard loses what is left of
his hold on sanity when construction of the A26 motorway comes to Picardy. To rectify the latest modernization
encroachment that symbolizes to Bernard the end of his life, he begins killing
people.
The latest Gallic translation of a Pascal Garnier suspenseful
French middle class tragedy (see The Front Seat Passenger, Moon in a Dead Eye, The Panda
Theory and How’s the Pain?) is another character-driven dark surrealistic
novella. Though written in 1999, The A76
is very timely as the reclusive siblings reject change like the roadway and his
illness as unacceptable while demanding society takes back a France created in
their respective images.
Harriet Klausner
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