“When I was younger, there wasn’t a ton of books in the house. I discovered literature thanks to the libraries in my schools. In elementary school, stumbling upon La Courte Échelle books. Then, fiction novels in high school. My college library introduced me to poetry. Then, in the cities I moved to; I read books on art, history and mechanics. Books, I loved some, I hated some, I read a few and leafed through thousands. Each library has taught me something. Each library has taught me something. Each library has opened a door no bigger than a quarter in my head. Now I have loose change coming out of my mouth and ears, and I’m glad to be so rich in my head. It’s a real honour to be part of the One eRead Canada book club.”
– Jean-Christophe Réhel, Author (translated)
About the Book
It’s a long way from a basement apartment in a Montreal suburb to a new life on a fictional planet, but that’s the destination our unnamed narrator in Tatouine has set his sights on, bringing readers with him on an off-beat and often hilarious journey.
Along the way, he writes poems, buys groceries at the dollar store, and earns minimum wage at a dead-end supermarket job. In between treatments for his cystic fibrosis and the constant drip-drip-drip of disappointment, he dreams of a new life on Tatouine, where he’ll play Super Mario Bros and make sand angels all day. But in the meantime, he’ll have to make do with daydreams of a better life, in which he is John McClane, he is the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi (with a bacteria he’s never heard of), he is Justin Timberlake… Meryl Streep… a grumpy George Clooney…
“Réhel gives the reader a front-row seat to a baroque and often hilarious interiority – one that highlights the complexity and tragedy of the human condition, while playfully revealing the capacity of the human mind for turning the struggles of existence, large and small, into a source of amusement. […] In addition to the often-dark humour, Réhel has a poet’s eye for rhythm, repetition, and stark imagery that thankfully isn’t lost in the exceptional translation by Katherine Hastings and Peter McCambridge.”
– Dean Garlick, Montreal Review of Books
Star Wars in Repentigny
Repentigny is a suburb of Montreal where most of Tatouine takes place. A theme in Tatouine is how the narrator reimagines his environment and his relationships through the prism of science fiction, as if the spirit of George Lucas has slowly taken hold of Repentigny. Jean-Christophe Réhel says:
“The most direct link to lung disease is Darth Vader and his relationship to breathing. To dedicate a story to a Star Wars fan character who has cystic fibrosis, I just dove into it, and I had fun writing.” (Urbania interview, Jeremy Hervieux)
Tatouine isn’t a book about Réhel, though he understands the association happens naturally: “because the narrator has cystic fibrosis and so do I. But otherwise, it’s fiction. I didn’t experience what he did: I’ve never been to New York, I’ve never lived in an old guy’s semi-basement…… I’ve never done the jobs described in the book, etc.” (Urbania interview, Jeremy Hervieux)
Tatouine is distinguished in its style: in addition to being touching from one end to the other, it is often very funny. This humor is found throughout at the Super C, a family Christmas party In New York, playing Santa’s elf: “I often laugh at myself. I think it brings me back to Earth, and it allows me to listen better during the serious moments, the moments when I put things in perspective. In the novel, I had no choice but to inject this madness of imagination there, because otherwise it would have been unbearable.”
This is precisely what infuses so much in Réhel’s work: imagination as a lifeline to the blandness of everyday life. “To write, for me, is to try to synthesize everyday life…to make it something wonderful.”
Getting the Books
Please check your local Public Library for available copies of the book in print or digital format.
The French Audiobook is available from a special production of Radio-Canada’s OHdio, available now.
Accessible versions of Tatouine are available in both French and English for people with print disabilities through the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) and the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS). Service québécois du livre (SQLA) also makes copies available for their subscribers.
CELA
French: https://celalibrary.ca/node/20674666
English: https://celalibrary.ca/node/24360036
NNELS
French: https://nnels.ca/fr/items/ce-quon-respire-sur-tatouine
English: https://nnels.ca/items/tatouine
About the Author
Jean-Christophe Réhel is a Quebec poet, novelist and screenwriter born April 25, 1989 in Montreal. His début novel, Ce qu’on respire sur Tatouine won Quebec’s prestigious Prix littéraire des collégiens. It’s his only novel so far, but he’s busy writing a second. Réhel is also the author of five books of poetry. From January 2020 to April 2021 he published “Le poem à Réhel” every week in the newspaper Le Devoir. He leads poetry workshops for all ages.
Tatouine is also his only book translated into English, but we hope that will change!
Réhel’s writing describes both the beauty and the blandness of everyday life. He explores themes of fatigue, loneliness, and illness, while weaving a good dose of self-deprecating humour.
Once you start reading Tatouine, you realize his poetic imagination knows no bounds. His interiority captures the most fascinating details that resonate, make you laugh (out loud), or even cry. “To write, for me, is to try to synthesize everyday life…to make it something wonderful.”
“I didn’t like poetry when I was in school. I shunned poems like the plague. I didn’t understand and I didn’t want to understand. I had a kind of revelation when I realized that poetry allowed me to go to the heart of feeling and intimacy.” Interview with Voices of Poetry”
– Jean-Christophe Réhel
Events
On April 19th, there was a wonderful discussion with the English translators, Katherine Hastings and Peter McCambridge, who were interviewed by Shelagh Rogers. Go to our Events page to view the recording. This event was held in English.
The French eAudio is available from a special production of Radio-Canada’s OHdio, available now.
Peter McCambridge
Originally from Ireland, Peter McCambridge holds a BA in modern languages from Cambridge University, England, and has lived in Quebec City since 2003. His translations have been World Literature Today Notable Translations, longlisted for Canada Reads, and finalists for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award for Translation.
Katherine Hastings
Katherine Hastings is a Quebec-based French-to-English translator and English copyeditor. She has translated two novels by Jean-Michel Fortier, The Unknown Huntsman (published 2016) and The Electric Baths (2020); co-translated Tatouine, a novel by Jean-Christophe Réhel (2020); and revised numerous other books for QC Fiction, an imprint of Baraka Books, including Éric Dupont’s 2018 Giller Prize finalist Songs for the Cold of Heart. She has also translated several works of non-fiction, including Montreal and the Bomb by Gilles Sabourin (2021) and The Plains of Abraham: Battlefield 1759 and 1760 by historian Hélène Quimper and the National Battlefields Commission, published in 2022.
Shelagh Rogers
Shelagh Rogers is a veteran broadcast-journalist, currently host and co-producer of CBC Radio’s The Next Chapter, devoted to writing in Canada. She is an honorary witness to the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2016, she was awarded the inaugural Margaret Trudeau Award for Mental Health Advocacy. She holds honorary doctorates from eight Canadian universities and is Chancellor of the University of Victoria. Shelagh is of Métis and Scottish ancestry. Her great-grandmother Edith Rogers was the first Michif woman, and the first woman, elected to the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. Edith was from Norway House, where David A. Robertson’s family has deep roots.
On April 25th, the author, Jean-Christophe Réhel was interviewed by Émilie Perreault. This event was in French.
