Description: I missed reading this title last year when it was a finalist for the 2017 ScotiaBank Giller Prize, but I don’t mind letting the hype die down before I read award-nominated titles. This is a lovely debut novel about a man who disappears and the hope and grief of his wife. But it’s funny.
Agathe and Réjean Lapointe live in the woods near a small Acadian village. They prefer to stay away from the English town and embrace their French heritage. They have a routine. Réjean obsessively upgrades his Chevy Silverado. He would never dream of driving something else, or not treating it with loving care. This is why it’s so strange when the Silverado is found abandoned at the side of the highway. It’s not like him at all. With no leads and no trace of Réjean, Agathe needs to find work. She becomes a cleaner at Stereoblast in the English-speaking town, and falls in with her racy, spirited coworker Debbie. Debbie is going places, in the way that small-town women go places. But she’s a real friend to Agathe and they have a lot of fun driving, rocking out, smoking, and being goofy.
This is a crazy little novel with a lot of improbabilities but it’s very likeable.
Favourite Moment: There are lots of great scenes where the two women are in the car, listening to music, and, because rock and roll is so new to Agathe who’s always listened to Acadian music, Debbie is explaining the tunes. It’s Agathe’s intro to English and rock and roll.
They listened to Chrissie Hynde and her dirty song.
“Chrissie can do anything she wants,” Debbie yelled. “She plays guitar and sings and plays the harmonica, and has these amazing bangs. She just holds the whole thing together—listen to her. The rest of the Pretenders are guys too—helping her sing this song about screwing this guy. God…”
In the crowded parking lot at the Whisky Mak, Debbie fluffed up her hair and reached down the neckline of her sweater into each armpit to pull up a handful of speckled bosom. Agathe tugged her track suit top down over her mid-section and stood with her hands on her hips, watching as Debbie applied lip gloss, punctuating with a pouty smack. When Debbie flung open the red doors of the Whisky Mak, it was as though revealing herself at last to a crowd that had bought tickets to see her.
Perfect for fans of Thelma & Louise. There’s a heist element, there are two crazy friends, there are guns and cars and weirdos. And it’s more goofball charm than grand theft auto.