Go Figure

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French studies at the University
of Guelph.

Quebec’s most reclusive author, Réjean Ducharme, is a novelist,
dramatist, poet, and three-time recipient of the Governor General’s
Award. Go Figure was first published under its French title, Va savoir,
in 1994. It tells the story of a Montreal couple who are separated after
the miscarriage of twin girls. Rémi Vavasseur retreats to the
countryside, where he will renovate a dilapidated house, getting it
ready for the return of his wife who is travelling overseas with a woman
friend. Will she ever come back? We are not told. The novel takes the
form of an interior monologue through which Rémy tells his wife—and
the reader—what is happening in his life.

Go Figure is a book filled with love and melancholy. As Rémy puts it,
“instead of the wound we had, we have a scar, where the skin has
thickened.” Also on welcome display are Ducharme trademarks:
linguistic virtuosity, controlled emotion, humour, lyricism, and
careful, non-judgmental observation of people and nature.