Becoming a monk to make yourself forgotten, kidnapping and locking a young girl in the basement, these are some ideas! They are both in the novel Happy and happy birthday. A first novel that will change your mind.
A Corsican pizzeria, the mafia, a big boom. A flight to the north that ends in a surprising way. Monks from Solignac shouting “What the hell is this?” », end their sentences with “dude”, drink burgundy in the kitchen. We tell you straight away: we let ourselves be caught in the game of this Happy and happy birthdaya novel without downtime.
From the beginning of the novel, we let ourselves be carried away by the story – or rather the stories which will ultimately become one -, by simple but effective writing and we appreciate the touch of humor that peeks out from beneath the incredible situations. .
In this story, there is also a kidnapping and two or three little things that we are definitely not going to tell you. That would spoil the suspense.
So this Happy and happy birthday, is it a sinister, gloomy story? No way. A very tangled story that takes the lead? Neither.
It is indeed a suspense novel – we even imagine the images of a film -, but we also smile and the characters are rather endearing as we get to know them a little better.
Solignac, its monks, its underground passages
The author, Pierre Le Roux, has filled the story with his Happy and happy birthdayhis first novel, many twists and turns and details, but the story, overall, holds together.
In these somewhat gloomy times, here is a novel that changes our minds. A large part of the plot takes place in Solignac and its surroundings. If you know the mushroom spots, the small roads, the abbey, the markets and you have already heard of stories of underground passages that run almost everywhere under our feet, you will not be disoriented.
Well, the monks of Solignac may not be quite the same as in reality and the underground passages may not lead to the same place, but what does it matter? They serve the story imagined by Pierre Le Roux around the main characters, Jean, Émilie and Patrick.
The magic of the novel is to make possible
things that seem impossible
The different characters have, when you think about it, no reason to meet. One is a Corsican restaurateur who has some difficulties with family and the mafia. The second is a young girl who works in the pharmaceutical industry, just engaged to a young man from a good family. The third is a former lumberjack, a strong man who took care of his multi-handicapped sister for a long time.
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But that’s also the magic of the novel: making highly improbable encounters possible, putting the characters in situations that we don’t necessarily envy, to make the reader escape. Even if, it must be said, reality is sometimes as talented as fiction…
Happy and happy birthdaywhatever the part of reality and fiction, in any case succeeds perfectly.
The book. Happy birthday, by Pierre Le Roux, Charles-Lavauzelle editions, 279 pages, 16 euros.
The author, Pierre Le Roux, lives in Dordogne, was a medical visitor and signs with Happy and happy birthday his first novel. Editions Charles-Lavauzelle, created in 2019, are based in Haute-Vienne.
Nathalie Goursaud
