The soft pen of Ava Rose Riverin, the hard life of Laura Bouchard

The story, again published by Éditions Château d’Encre, tells the story of Laura Bloom, a famous actress who comes to lose herself, by dint of molding herself to the desires of the public and the fantasies of the men – often toxic – around her. of her.

We find her at the crossroads of her life, torn between her truth and her fictions. At the dawn of great upheavals which we will only fully appreciate later, through the eyes of his son Simon.

By telling her story, Ava Rose Riverin finds the right words to deal with these “complex” human relationships which twist until they become violence. Psychological or physical. Conscious or not.

Then the one who is from Saguenay talks in passing about abortion, dementia, sexual assault. Each time finding a way to stay in balance, by setting foot in territories that she admits are “thorny”, but that she knows are too important to bypass.

“I am very concerned about the condition of women. Sometimes we have the impression that things are settled, but when we take a look behind our shoulders, we realize that all our progress is very recent. We are always one step away from losing what we have gained. So as long as you have a voice, as long as you have the privilege of being read by more than 10 people, you might as well take advantage of it to provoke reflection on subjects that are dear to me,” explains the author in an interview with The Daily.

Inspiration

When writing her first book, she says, the inspiration came in part from the publicized story of the little girl from Granby, whose death shocked all of Quebec. “We were talking about violence against children, I wondered about the repercussions of this violence, from childhood to adulthood.”

Then this time, with The time I killed Laura Bouchardit was, in a way, the #MeToo Movement which proved to be the spark plug – the foray into the world of cinema, into the story, putting us on the alert.

“At the time, there was a list called Say His Name. Out of curiosity, I went to see if there were any men I knew who were there, even though I didn’t feel like I had been attacked. And there, I found the names of three men I had known. It got me thinking,” recalls Ava Rose Riverin.

The questions that inhabited her at that moment are brought up by the character of Laura Bouchard – Bloom by her actress name – in the book, while she suffers violence that is sometimes frontal, sometimes more insidious. The kind that sometimes only comes true years later, after reflections that only hindsight ultimately allows.

“There is a whole reflection on posture, on what we mean by aggression. And we all have baggage, we are raised with certain beliefs, perspectives. There is also the posture we adopt to survive in life, sometimes we choose not to be a victim, to be a survivor, to close our eyes, whatever. All of this really resonated with me, and that’s where the character of Laura was born.”

“Life,” the author continues, “is a game of perspectives, and we cannot see otherwise than with the baggage we have. What I saw, for example, at 15 years old about things that had happened to me, I don’t see them with the same perspective today.”

The power of words

It was at a very young age, while she secretly used the family library, that Ava Rose Riverin became aware of the impact that books could have. A discovery which then crystallized upon reading the Diary of Anne Frankat school, and who ended up making little ones, in her own writing notebooks.

“I wasn’t allowed to read it because I was too young, but I read it the same. And I cried. I realized that words were really powerful. So I started not only reading, but also writing. Poems, truly heartbreaking affairs.”

Today focused on “more feminist” stories, with authors such as Delphine de Vigan, Annie Ernaux and Joyce Carol Oates, Ava Rose Riverin still writes heartbreaking works to this day, not necessarily made to be read at by the fire “with a good hot chocolate,” she laughs.

But these works – entertaining all the same – aim above all to raise awareness, to spark some thoughts. “In the first book, I had two readers who came to see me to tell me that reading had awakened something in them which had made them aware that they were victims of ordinary violence, with their spouses. I tell myself that if it has this impact, just on two people, it’s already won.”

Her second novel has just been launched, the Saguenéenne of origin, who has been a professional editor for around fifteen years, is already preparing a third. This time a sequel to I am Pompeiiwhich will transport readers a quarter of a century later.