Benjamin Allan teaches French literature of the second half of the nineteenth century at a university in Montreal. It was in his fifties, asked about the existential conditions of a man who has very little to prove. He is married to Laura, a woman of her age, which she dedicated to art therapy. Parents of a teenager addicted to television. Wear couple misunderstanding lazy trio without upsetting surprise. Ben octogenarian father, Morris, who ended his life in a retirement home. Father Jewish rebels at the irony that Ben visit regularly. The relationship between the two sometimes shy men unconscious is a therapy which neither the one nor the other can not happen. The old Morris, fierce and stumbling, raises framed memorabilia that her son has hidden, his childhood was disrupted by one of his two brothers who beat him outrageously. Until the day when Ben wins a prize for a university essay on the dromomanie, pathology and leakage form of hysteria affecting only men. Finally, something happening in his life, he considers dull and bland. A young woman, Carla McWatt, communications officer at impetuous temperament of an artist, it will give an interview in which invisible waves awaken dormant libido of his interlocutor. Ben will use his sexual attraction to Carla to deceive his boredom away his guilt. The lack of emotional Laura, his wife, who lives only for his profession, he believes. Fragile one and the other which, as the novel unfolds, will reveal its own set of truths and lies. Ben rubs beings that are suffering from a pathological insecurity, a fear based on the adventures of surface. Human Relations unstable interspersed chapters on dromomanie, not reflect a desire not obscure Ben Allan: flee, but to where? Flee oneself to get together at the Institut Philippe Pinel, as did Carla McWatt, voluntary patient, after Ben has unveiled its a terrifying secret disintegrator its status as an artist. "Patient star" of the disturbing Albanna psychiatrist. This makes dolls sordid, fueling a cure neurosis, hence the fatal act.
Curiously, we feel that probing the vulnerabilities of his relatives, Ben Allan rebuilds, endangering belief that everyone is invented to counter its doldrums. The core of the novel revolves around Ben visits his father. Their discussions of the energy that permeates not suspected. Galvanized by the ardor of a mental father's desperate love of life does not blink, Ben, mourns his own desertion, can not stop fooling themselves, seeking what would be best for his fellow while he has no intention of helping anyone.
Roman dense, intelligent. Intimate, contemplative gaze of David Homel is constantly observe what emerges from a society tragic, minimalist. Ben goes from one to another, thus hiding the root causes of its dispersion. The conduct disordered partners instill in him the reasons for this masterful live it. Maintaining an ostentatious unwittingly suffering, Ben knows that offering in exchange. When it occurs, often clumsily, is to resolve deficiencies that help them survive. Roman with a hundred subjects can not be addressed here: how to support old age, resolving grief. Be an ideal father, a husband caring. Recognizing the benefits of immigration. Novel in which childhood is a crucial part, symbolized by objects stored as if the immaturity ate artifacts. Stuffed animals, dolls, rubber dinosaurs. Dialogues, for the most theatrical are imbued with humor effective scenes are irresistible smile, as the meeting of the old Morris with Hassidic group in Outremont. Novel in which the vital signs never end. Their lack avenues and wandering Ben Allan can not continue without facing demands to refusals. Laura, wife disenchanted, which moves in a quiet sneaky; Carla, disappointed in love, pushing its illusory empathy. Vivid distributed, analyzing the meaning of life, set by people in their own way, with a quiet hysteria. Hence the tick - incurable virus? - Ben perceived by Laura. Dense and tender romance where all experimental source flows into the ocean infernal our failures.
It would be unfair not to mention the impeccable translation of Sophie Voillot.
The right way, David Homel
translated from English (United States) by Sophie Voillot
Leméac / Actes Sud, Montreal / Arles, 2010, 408 pages
Dominique Blondeau - dominblondeau@yahoo.fr 
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