Amelie Antoine

This book is a dichotomy

Part 1
Winter, 1979
This is the the story of Edouard Bresson’s youth. First born, loved second best, Edouard is a normal boy except for the terrible stutter which leaves him open to being bullied unmercifully. He has a younger brother, Jonathan, who dreams of one day having the top bunk bed. Their father is a mean tempered factory worker who “works, eats, sleeps and rages”. But Edouard knows there is more to life, there has to be. For Edouard his sole desire is “to make his loved ones laugh”.

As all things must happen Edouard accepts a dare, Jonathan takes a fall, and life is changed forever.

March 31, 2017
Edouard becomes the politest, the humblest, “the most unpredictable stand-up comic”. He is getting ready for the biggest show of his life, fifty thousand people in the Stade de France. He is anxious, he always is before performing. He is afraid, he is nauseous. “The stage is the only place he can beat his anxiety, the only place he really feels like he’s the person he’s supposed to be.” His brother Jonathan is in the front row, as he is for all Edouard’s performances. A huge success, fifty thousand people screaming his name, begging for an encore, a celebratory cast party and then April Fool’s day.

Part 2
April 1, 2017
The writing in this part seems as if it is a different book. Related by Edouard’s son Arthur who professes if not hate, great dislike for his father. They haven’t spoken in a very long time and he is fairly sure it is merely an extension of a very unhappy father-son relationship. But Edouard has left Arthur packages and clues to draw him into a treasure hunt for the real Edouard Bresson. Arthur is crazy angry. Will he accept the challenge and come to know his father? I almost didn’t care. The tone of this part of the books was off-putting, annoying, antagonistic. This could have been a much stronger part of the story if the anger had been kept to a manageable level.

Thank you NetGalley and AmazonCrossing for an ARC… (more)