Created by Daniel Da
A delusional P.I. possibly from Montreal?
Tabarnacle!
Reinventing himself as a private eye, writer and Crohn’s Disease sufferer GUSSE OUALZERRE is hired — or allows himself to be hired) by a bizarre character who calls himself the General, to rescue his kidnapped daughter Mathilda. The case soon takes a weird, surreal turn, and the reader is never quite sure what’s real and what’s a figment of Gusse’s imagination. But don’t worry, it’s apparently intentional — the running title of this series translates as “The Hallicinatory Adventures of Gusse Oualzerre.”
If you thought Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy was something else, take a whiff of this one.
But it turns out maybe I’m hallucinating a bit myself. In correspondence with the author, Montreal writer Daniel Da, it was explained to me that “GO isn’t from Montreal (nowhere in the novels is it said that he is from this beautiful city of ours) unless you think so. GO is built as an open sign, a sound — you make what you want out of him, a Montreal private eye if you wish. The same goes for the adventures. I believe in the creativity of the reader.”
Uh-huh…
The trippiness of the series even extends to its covers. The first book, l’Oeil privé (2000), won the Grand Prix de la Concours Graphika for Best Book Cover. Or maybe that should have been for non-cover. That book and its sequels, Projet Danaide (2001) and Le poisson français(2002) all came sealed in evidence bags — “a Ziplock, of course,” according to Da.
Alas, so far there doesn’t seem to be any sign of an English translation.
Da da da…
UNDER OATH
- “On se croirait dans un Truman Show orchestré par une héroïnomane victime d’une overdose avec hallucinations à la clé, délire et inévitable réveil à l’hôpital (il y en a d’ailleurs plusieurs)”
— Marie-Claude Fortin,Voir
NOVELS
- Les Aventures hallucinantes de Gusse Oualzerre 1 : l’Oeil privé (2000) | Buy this book
- Les Aventures hallucinantes de Gusse Oualzerre 2 : Projet Danaide (2001) | Buy this book
- Les Aventures hallucinantes de Gusse Oualzerre 3 : Le poisson français (2002) | Buy this book
RELATED LINKS
- C’est ma ville, aussi…
A listing of Montréal eyes.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith (original report, February 2001). And merci à Danel for helping keep this bloke straight.
