Jean-Michel Béquié: Charles (1993)

Jean-Michel Béquié was a new name to me, although this novel received very good reviews in 1993 when the novel was published. He also published Lumière cendrée in 1986, a book about which I have very little information, although it doesn't appear to be a novel as reviews say Charles was his first. Béquié published another novel, Les Fugues de Joseph Conti, in 1998, and since then seems to have moved off the radar: anyone with any information to add, please leave a comment or email me.

Charles is set in Provence, in a town which strongly resembles L'Ile-sur-la-Sorgue geographically, where Béquié spent many years of his adulthood. Béquié was only thirty five when he wrote Charles, although the novel shows a great deal of understanding of the very old protagonist François. François has a son (Frédéric, who is sixty) and daughter Gabrielle. Relations with François aren't problematic, although Gabrielle, who lives in Brittany with her husband Pierre and daughters Sophie and Delphine, rarely sees François and is cold towards him. She calls him an egotist, which François doesn't deny: he didn't approve of Gabrielle's marriage, and his attitude in general made for difficulties with François's wife seeing her grandchildren.

François is concerned about ageing, and it's evident that he's close to death. He frequently looks out onto the adjacent nursery school and dwells on his principal obsession: the death of his son Charles from a brain tumour at the age of five. He takes us through his memories of his son and his final months. This is a very perceptive work which appeared to herald an important new writing talent, but for some reason it wasn't to be.