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Reviewed by: Dave Williamson Posted: 2:00 AM CDT Saturday, Jul. 23, 2022
Marie-Renée Lavoie is the Quebec author of an entertaining novel called Autopsy of a Boring Wife (2019) and its equally enjoyable sequel, A Boring Wife Settles the Score (2021). In those, Lavoie showed a knack for combining heart-wrenching with hilarious, as main protagonist Diane Delaunais rebounds from her break-up to become an attractive independent woman with new confidence as she turns 50.
Marie-Renée Lavoie is the Quebec author of an entertaining novel called Autopsy of a Boring Wife (2019) and its equally enjoyable sequel, A Boring Wife Settles the Score (2021). In those, Lavoie showed a knack for combining heart-wrenching with hilarious, as main protagonist Diane Delaunais rebounds from her break-up to become an attractive independent woman with new confidence as she turns 50.
Lavoie’s latest offering, Some Maintenance Required, moves naturally from comedy to heartache, but is not quite as satisfying as its predecessors.
Marie-Renée Lavoie has a knack of being able to combine heart-wrenching and hilarious prose in her novels.
The novel takes place in Quebec City in 1993 and is narrated in the first person by 18-year-old Laurie Gagnon. Laurie is completing her high-school education while wanting to take on a waitress job that will keep her busy until she goes to university.
Laurie is close to her mother Suzanne, who is so likable she almost steals the novel from her daughter. Suzanne works in a tiny booth as the attendant for a hospital parking lot. “When the window was closed, it was a fully soundproof wooden cube that existed beyond the laws of time and the outside world,” Lavoie writes.
“It would be a mistake,” Laurie says, “to think that, just because she was shut up year-round in her snug little nest, my mother never went anywhere. She read novels, heaps of novels… enough novels to [enable her to] unabashedly discuss travel with anyone, convinced that her literary experiences could measure up to those of actual globetrotters.”
Laurie and her mother are such good pals that it is not unusual for Laurie to take over the booth while Suzanne goes on a pee break.
Author Lavoie spins out many threads: Laurie looking for work; her father Serge working at a car repair garage, where Laurie loses her cool when she sees that the male mechanics have posted calendars illustrated with nude women; Laurie’s being continually visited by a mouthy seven-year-old girl named Cindy; typical experiences of how customers and waitresses behave in restaurants; offers to make Laurie a hostess and even an assistant manager instead of a waitress; Laurie’s having her hair dyed blonde after she finds she has contracted lice; and her mother Suzanne’s sudden illness.
The dialogue is lively and authentic. Here’s a scene shortly after Laurie has met a guy named Roman:
“The first cab I hailed pulled over; I was amazed by the power of blond hair. Roman came running back. He wanted me to go to his place. We could get cleaned up, rescue our appetites, talk about bugs, cars, whatever.
“ ‘I can’t, I feel gross.’
“ ‘I live five minutes away.’
“ ‘I don’t even know you.’
“ ‘Roman Leduc, twenty-one, five-nine-and-a-half, O positive. I have three cavities and recently got my tetanus booster. Fructose intolerant, favourite colour indigo. Zodiac sign … banana.’
“ ‘Pff! Do you go to university?’
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“ ‘I can’t, but want to spend your five minutes where it’s warm?’
“ ‘No, thanks. I might never want to get out…’”
There are many exchanges like this. In fact, a reader might decide that this novel is a lovely diversion — who cares if it doesn’t lead to any real conclusions? (Often, one wishes that there was more clarity regarding who is speaking.)
At times, it seems that Laurie’s language is too precocious. Would an 18-year-old use words such as modicum, aplomb, dubitable, amplify the banality and loath? (In the text, loath is spelled loathe, which has an entirely different meaning from the one intended.) Perhaps this is a consequence of translation, done for this book by Arielle Aaronson, who also translated Lavoie’s Boring Wife novels. That might also explain why Laurie and her friends never say “like,” which has become the commonest word in many English-speaking young people’s vocabularies.
Dave Williamson is the Winnipeg author of a novel called Dating.
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By Marie-Renée Lavoie, translated by Arielle Aaronson
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