Maude

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson Polytechnical University.

The heroine of this strange novella is Maude, an artist in the grip of a
debilitating mental condition. Bruno, the man she lives with in a
deserted(?) house, sells her work and “protects” her. The point of
view alternates between Bruno and Maude, who sees everything in terms of
colors and the effect of the changing light on them. But neither
perspective enlightens the reader, who is drawn into a crazy, dreamlike
world where things and events keep changing their shape and substance.

Award-winning Québécoise author Suzanne Jacob has created an intense
and thought-provoking work whose fundamental nature remains unclear. Is
it a story of mental deterioration, a rumination on the role of the
artist in society, or, with its oblique references to the “Party,” a
political allegory?