Hello friends, happy Wednesday – I hope you’re all having a good week so far! Today I’m going to be posting my review of Jean-Christophe Réhel’s novel Tatouine.

I read this for my Canada Reads project (reading all the nominated books for #CanadaReads).

This novel was originally published in French and was translated by: Katherine Hastings

Tatouine by: Jean-Christophe Réhel: This is a story of our narrator who is living with cystic fibrosis, in a basement making minimum wage at a grocery store, while he writes poetry in his free time. But on the flip side he daydreams about life on his own planet, Tatouine, living the lives of different famous people from Matt Damon to Robbin Williams and sometimes Anakin Skywalker. It may not sound like much but this novel was definitely fascinating and a little quirky. The plot felt a little all over the place and things kept happening in rapid succession that left the reader confused at times, but also certainly on their toes. There was no predicting what was going to come next and that was the thrill of reading this. The short, abrupt sentences, which could have just been the way this was translated, made the reader read this faster and really upped the pace. Aside from the unpredictability and the quickness of the plot, the references – a major one being Star Wars – were funny and kept the story light seeing as the subject matter was a little on the heavier side. This novel was the perfect length for what it was and the author captured the essence of what it is to be someone who lives from cystic fibrosis well, which after doing some research on the author, looks like he based this around himself. The main character was thoroughly developed; he wasn’t always likeable but the flaws are what made him feel human. He had a dark sense of humour that didn’t always sit with the reader, but for the most part the jokes landed pretty well. The secondary characters had enough depth to them that they really rounded the story. Overall, this was eccentric, yet very captivating read.