A Suit of Light

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French Studies at the University
of Guelph. She is the author of Courts métrages et instantanés and La
Soupe.

First published in French under the title Un habit de lumiиre, this
award-winning final book by Anne Hébert (who died in January 2000) is a
true masterpiece. It centres on the dreams of a Spanish immigrant family
in Paris.

Everyone, according to Hébert, is entitled to having a dream that
illuminates life. Rosa-Alba Almevida, an apartment concierge, is
flirtatious and dreams of elegance. Her macho husband Pedro, a
construction worker, dreams about returning to Spain. Their son, Miguel,
dreams of being a girl.

But dreams cannot bedim real-life circumstances and sometimes they can
even destroy them. Burdened by sad experiences that have negated his
desire for light, then perceiving the light in the reflections of the
Seine’s waters, Miguel drowns himself (his slow approach to the water
evokes Virginia Woolf’s walk into the river, her pockets full of
stones).

A Suit of Light is Hébert’s metaphor for her life-long conviction
that even though there are many dark forces in our lives, the human
spirit will find light. With exquisite wisdom, she integrates huge
social issues into her slim work of poetic delight: poverty,
immigration, class, sexual orientation, human relations, racism.

Sheila Fischman’s precise, sensitive translation glows with the
luminosity that Hébert infuses into lives of misery.