And in the end, we all die anyway.
I stood there rooted to the spot, looking at the rubble, trying to conjure them up one last time: Adrienne, the little old lady on the first floor; Denise and her little Josée; the lovers on the second floor; and Eve. All of them dead, for nothing, for no reason. A light went on in one of the parked cars. It was Lieutenant Geoffrion, in civvies, in his own car, putting the final touch on his report.
– Bonsoir, Lieutenant.
– ‘Soir.
– You’re working late.
– Ouan.
– What’s new?
– Rien.
You can’t push the Boomer. You’ll get absolutely nowhere if you try. I held my tongue and waited. After a minute he looked up from his papers and said:
– The demolition crew arrives tomorrow.
– What? You mean you found the cause?
– No. It means they’re in a hurry to rebuild.
– Do you have an idea, at least?
– No.
– There’s no cause?
– There’s always a cause. But it takes time to find it. And right now, everyone’s in just too goddamn much of a hurry. If you want the truth, you’ve got to take the time to find it.
– If I were a drinking man, Lieutenant, I’d drink to that.
– To what?
– To taking the time you need.
We listened to the rumble of the city. I pulled out a pack of cigarettes.
– Time for a smoke, Lieutenant?
– Time for a smoke.
It was over. I’d run the course. There was no more air in the balloon. I wasn’t any wiser or any happier. I was like someone who wins a game of solitaire and says:
– Well, that’s that.
And starts another game.
It’s called life.
u
My name is Gérard and I’m an alcoholic. I’ve been sober for two months and two days. I’m sitting in a motel room on Route 117, not far from Kouchibouguac in New Brunswick.
I guess I should tell you what happened after I smoked that cigarette with Lieutenant Geoffrion in front of the ruins of my old building on rue Darling. But I don’t feel like it. Let’s just say I knocked on Angéla’s door and she let me in. I still don’t know what it means or where it’ll lead, but I’m going to take the time to find out. Sometimes life pitches you a fastball, right in the middle of the strike zone. You should never waste a good pitch.
Angéla came back to New Brunswick to visit her children in their foster home. She asked me to come along. When she left the motel room this morning, she asked me to wait for her, and to take care of her when she gets back.
Because it’s not easy watching your kids call a couple of strangers mom and dad.
So, I’m waiting for her.
When she comes back, I’ll take her in my arms. Maybe. Or maybe I’ll let her sit by herself for a while and look at the ocean. I’ll play it by ear. But I’m going to take care of her. I’m going to take care of her.
And later, if we feel like it, we’ll go for lobster.
If it’s in season.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES
Page 2. Les Rougon-Macquart: A cycle of 20 novels by Émile Zola which follow several generations of a fictional French family during the 19th century. Pléiade editions, published by Gallimard, are high-quality, critical editions of major works of French and world literature, leather-bound and printed on Bible paper.
Page 6. Liberté: A quarterly revue of arts and politics, published in Montreal.
Page 8. immigrant investor: Foreign business people with money to invest are fast-tracked for immigration and citizenship in Canada.
Page 8. October Crisis: In late 1970, civil liberties were suspended and the Canadian army deployed in Quebec following the kidnapping of a British diplomat and a Quebec cabinet minister by members of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ). More than 450 people including artists and intellectuals were detained without charge. The Quebec minister was killed; the British diplomat eventually released.
Page 9. Antoine Doinel: A recurring character in five films by François Truffaut, often regarded as Truffault’s alter ego.
Page 14. the first floor: In Montreal, the first floor is usually the ground floor. Some first floor apartments are a few steps above ground and have low balconies.
Page 14. Act of God: In English in the original text.
Page 14. Sun Youth: A Montreal community service organization which helps victims of house fires and other disasters.
Page 19. Hautes études commerciales: Canada’s oldest business school, now officially called HEC Montréal.
Page 20. Angus rail shops: A large railcar manufacturing and repair facility, closed in 1992.
Page 21. Amen and Praise the Lord: In English in the original text.
Page 21. Little Burgundy: A neighbourhood in south-central Montreal, the historic home of the city’s English-speaking, working-class black community.
Page 22. Boom Boom ... the Canadiens: Bernie Geoffrion was a legendary Montreal hockey player, nick-named “Boom Boom” for his powerful slapshot. The Canadiens is the name of Montreal’s professional hockey team. (See also habitant, below.)
Page 25. Glaneuses: A Montreal charity selling used clothing and furniture.
Page 30. I climbed the stairs: In Montreal’s older, three-floor residential buildings, the stairs to the second floor are often outside. From there an enclosed inner stairwell leads to the third floor.
Page 30. Pot-Bouille: One of the novels in Zola’s Les Rougon-Macquart. Others mentioned later are L’Assommoir, Germinal, and Nana.
Page 36. National Bank: Quebec’s largest bank, with head-quarters in Montreal.
Page 47. Young Catholic Workers: Jeunesse Ouvrière Catholique, an international lay organization of the Catholic church which promotes workers’ rights and social justice. The Quebec branch started in 1932 but lost influence during the 1960s with the rise of trade unions.
Page 48. Order of the Holy Sacrament: A fictitious order invented by the author.
Page 49. Magnétothèque: A Quebec organization producing audio books for the visually impaired, now called Vues et Voix.
Page 49. Trente Arpents: A Quebec novel first published in Paris in 1938. Ringuet was the nom-de-plume of author Philippe Panneton. The novel won prizes in France and Quebec, and Felix and Dorothea Walter’s translation, Thirty Acres, won Canada’s Governor General’s Award in 1940. The excerpt here is from the Walter’s translation in the New Canadian Library Edition published by McClelland & Stewart, 2009, 46. Arpent is a French unit of measure approximately equal to an acre.
Page 49. Maison de la culture: Montreal’s neighbourhood arts and cultural centres. Some contain branches of the city library.
Page 49. habitant: A Quebec small-hold farmer, often poor. The word is sometimes used pejoratively to mean a country bumpkin, but is also the affectionate nickname (shortened to “Habs” in English) of the Canadiens hockey team, many of whose early players were from rural Quebec.
Page 50. Un Canadien errant: A Quebec folk song written by Antoine Gérin-Lajoie after the failed Lower Canada rebellion of 1837–38; those rebels not killed were forced into exile. The song became a popular tribute to the hundreds of thousands of Quebec farmers and unemployed workers who migrated to the USA in search of jobs during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Page 52. petit-Canada: Communities of French-Canadian emigrants in the United States, particularly in New England. (See Un Canadien errant, above.)
Page 54. madeleines: Small sponge cakes from the Lorraine region of France. Marcel Proust, in À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time), used madeleines to show how a taste could trigger involuntary memories.
Page 54. dépanneur: A neighbourhood convenience store selling beer, wine, tobacco, and basic groceries.
Page 55. Educ’alcool: A not-for-profit organization promoting responsible drinking.
Page 58. home: In Engl
ish in the original text.
Page 59. CEGEP: Quebec’s post-secondary public colleges. The acronym, for Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel, is used in English as well.
Page 63. whatever the hell that means: In English in the original text, as “whatever that means.”
Page 67. Caisse Populaire: Quebec’s network of cooperatively-owned credit unions.
Page 68. mes semblables, mes frères: Literally “my fellow men, my brothers.” A variation on —Hypocrite lecteur,—mon semblable,—mon frère!, the last line of Baudelaire’s opening poem in Les Fleurs du Mal (1857).
Page 74. Beaver Lake: A small, man-made lake atop Mount Royal.
Page 76. Acadian peninsula: In the northeastern corner of New Brunswick, so-called for its French-speaking Acadian population.
Page 82. toonie: Canada’s two dollar coin.
Page 86. Chic Resto Pop: A community restaurant in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district serving inexpensive meals while providing job training for unemployed workers.
Page 89. E.B. Eddy: Founder of the E.B. Eddy Company, a Quebec manufacturer of wooden matches.
Page 90. Laprairie: A suburb of Montreal on the south-shore of the St. Lawrence River.
Page 91. Big deal: In English in the original text.
Page 91. Yes Master ...: In English in the original text, but as: “Yes Master. As you please Master. Only water for me, Master.”
Page 93. SAQ: Quebec’s liquor stores, run by the Société des alcools du Québec. In English, people sometimes refer to the stores as “the sack.”
Page 93. “Moderation is always in good taste”: La modération a bien meilleur goût, a slogan used by Éduc’alcool (see above).
Page 95. Porte-du-Nord: A tourist information and service centre 40 kilometres north of Montreal, considered the gateway to the Laurentian mountains.
Page 95. Perly’s: A Canadian publisher of road maps.
Page 95. Sainte-Rose: A district in the city of Laval, adjacent to Montreal.
Page 103. Oh, boy: In English in the original text.
Page 109. the Village: Also known as the Gay Village, an inner-city neighbourhood and nightlife district popular with the city’s gay and lesbian community.
Page 109. Pinel: The Institut Philippe-Pinel de Montréal, a hospital specializing in forensic psychiatry and the assessment and treatment of violent patients.
Page 110. Royal Vic: The Royal Victoria Hospital, on the southern slope of Mount Royal.
Page 111. mad professor ... the CIA: During the 1950s and 1960s, the psychiatric wing of the Royal Victoria Hospital was one of many sites of a secret CIA research program aimed at developing mind control and psychological torture techniques. Under the guidance of Donald Ewen Cameron, then chairman of the World Psychiatric Association and president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, unsuspecting patients at the Royal Vic were given LSD, paralytic drugs, and high doses of electroconvulsive therapy. Some were kept in drug-induced comas for weeks and subjected to endless noise. Many were left permanently damaged. It wasn’t until the 1980s that journalists uncovered the full extent of the Canadian program and discovered that the Canadian government had helped fund it.
Page 115. MSO: Montreal Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Charles Dutoit from 1977 to 2002.
Page 119. Kouchibouguac: A town and nearby national park on the shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in eastern New Brunswick.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The translator gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Bernard Émond, the hospitality of The Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators, in Visby, Sweden, and the support of The Canada Council for the Arts.
ALSO BY BERNARD ÉMOND
Books:
Il y a trop d’images: Textes épars 1993-2010
La perte et le lien: Entretiens sur le cinéma, la culture, la société (with Simon Galiero)
La quête spirituelle: Avec ou sans Dieu (with Rose Dufour and Gilles Lussier)
Aani la bavarde
Screenplays with Commentaries:
Tout ce que tu possèdes: Scénario et regards croisés
La donation: Scénario et regards croisés
Contre toute espérance: Scénario et regards croisés
La neuvaine: Scénario et regards croisés
Feature Films:
Tout ce que tu possèdes (2012)
La donation (2009)
Contre toute espérance (2007)
La neuvaine (2005)
20h17 rue Darling (2003)
La femme qui boit (2001)
Selected Documentary Films:
Le temps et le lieu (2000)
L’épreuve du feu (1997)
La terre des autres (1995)
L’instant et la patience (1994)
Ceux qui ont le pas léger meurent sans laisser de traces (1992)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bernard Émond was born in Montreal in 1951. After studies in anthropology and a Master’s thesis on ethnographic cinema, he worked in the Canadian Arctic as a television instructor for Inuit Broadcasting. During the 1990s he made documentary films, including Ceux qui ont le pas léger meurent sans laisser de traces, named Best Documentary of 1992 by the Quebec Association of Film Critics (AQCC). Émond’s first two feature films, La femme qui boit (2001) and 20h17 rue Darling (2003), were selected for the International Critics’ Week at the Cannes film festival. His next three features form a trilogy exploring the theological virtues, faith, hope, and charity. La neuvaine (2005), Contre toute espérance (2007), and La donation (2009) received numerous awards internationally, and La neuvaine was named Best Quebec Film of the Decade by the AQCC. Émond’s 2012 feature film, Tout ce que tu possèdes, revolves around translating the poems of Edward Stachura.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
John Gilmore is a former Montreal journalist. He is the author of Swinging in Paradise: The Story of Jazz in Montreal and a poetic novel, Head of a Man.
ABOUT THE FILM
20h17 rue Darling, written and directed by Bernard Émond, was selected for the International Critics Week at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival and named one of Canada’s Top Ten Films for 2003 by the Toronto International Film Festival Group. In the same year the film won Best Male Actor (for Luc Picard in the role of Gérard) at the Festival international du film francophone de Namur, in Belgium, and the Audience Choice award as Best Canadian Feature Film at the Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie, in Moncton. The music soundtrack by Robert Marcel Lepage is available on the Ambiances Magnéthiques label.
First published in French in 2002 as 20h17 rue Darling
Copyright © 2002 Lux Éditeur
Translation copyright © 2014 John Gilmore and Guernica Editions Inc.
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise stored in a retrieval system, without the prior consent of the publisher is an infringement of the copyright law.
Michael Mirolla, editor
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2013953836
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Émond, Bernard, 1951-
[20 h 17, rue Darling. English]
8:17 pm, rue Darling [electronic resource] / Bernard Émond ; John Gilmore, translator.
(Essential translations series ; 17)
Translation of: 20 h 17, rue Darling.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
SBN 978-1-55071-846-1 (pbk.).--ISBN
978-1-55071-847-8 (epub).-- ISBN 978-1-55071-848-5 (mobi)
I. Gilmore, John, 1951-, translator II. Title. III. Title: 8:17
pm, rue Darling. IV. Title: 20 h 17, rue Darling. English. V. Series: Essential
translations series ; 17
PS8559.M62V5613 2014 C843’.6 C2013-907542-9
C2013-907543-7 9999907907543
Guernica Editions Inc. acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the National Translation Program for Book Publishing for our translation activities. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities.
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