“It is a first American novel whose form flirts with orality. It tells a fictional story that spans from the dawn of the civil rights movements to the years of Donald Trump. [The author] tried to recreate the structure of documentaries on rock in writing, but it is really a fiction which is carried by an epic romantic breath. It follows a young woman who begins to investigate a story that is both current and personal because it is her father’s relationship with Opal Jewel, who formed a famous duo with him like Ike and Tina Turner. It’s everything that happened between them, the era, too, of 1970s rock. It’s really fascinating, the way it’s constructed. »
“It is a biographical essay on the life of Quebec composer Claude Vivier. Orphaned, adopted by a modest family in which he was sexually assaulted, he became one of the stars of Canadian electroacoustic music. From June 1982, he stayed in Paris thanks to a grant from the Arts Council and worked on writing an opera about Tchaikovsky. He was murdered on March 7, 1983, at the age of 34, by a young prostitute. Rober Racine is a writer, also a composer, and he was a friend of Claude Vivier in the last years of his life. In this book, he reflects on the link between murder and creation and will offer us his perception of Vivier’s trajectory. »
“I have been an admirer of Bradbury since I was a teenager, and yet I only recently came across this book by chance. It dates from 1990. Essentially, it is a book about his love for writing. I read the first chapters and it was pure delight. It’s a collection of articles that have been published right and left, his practical advice on the art of writing, from finding ideas to developing your own style; at the same time, it is the story of his career as a prolific author. It is not a how to book, it is truly a reflection and a tribute to writing, to literature and, above all, to the art of the storyteller. »
