(no subject)
So I picked up The Death-Defying Pepper Roux off a recommendation in deutscheami's journal, and it turned out to be an amazingly excellent decision: guys, this book is gorgeous.
When Pepper Roux was an infant, his aunt announced that she'd received a vision from the blessed Saint Constance that the kid was doomed to die before he'd reached age fourteen. Pepper's life has subsequently been lived in a haze of anxiousness and prayer; he goes to confession every day, his mother tends to weep whenever she sees him, and his aunt stuffs his pockets with messages to take to the Great Beyond. When his fourteenth birthday comes around, Pepper decides to make a last-ditch attempt to avoid his doom and, for the first time in his life, rebels - stepping completely out of his life and usurping somebody else's (in this case, a merchant sea captain's.)
A complicated, nerve-wracking, and often very funny journey through a multitude of different identities ensues, involving everything from an illegal death ship to newspaper fraud to the French Foreign Legion to the Hongriot-Pleuviez Amendment (what do you mean you've never heard of the Hongriet-Pleuviez, it's a disgrace and needs to be repealed RIGHT AWAY, especially Clause Five). And everywhere he turns, Pepper still sees the heavenly host hunting him down to make good on his overdue death:
By now, angels might be lurking around any and every corner, collars turned up, stiletto knives in their pockets. Saints were probably stopping boys in the street, demanding to see their identity cards, bundling them into the backs of black vans or flaming chariots.
What I actually was reminded of most, in terms of sensibility, was the film Amelie - it has the same beautiful execution, unexpected humor and just-slightly-surreal edge that balances on the brink of magical realism without ever quite tipping over. And Pepper himself reminds me of a slightly darker Amelie Poulain, in his naievete, his isolation, and his idiosyncratic determination to help people as best he can. It also features, by the end, an extremely unusual found family that I think is going to remain as one of my favorites for all time.
When Pepper Roux was an infant, his aunt announced that she'd received a vision from the blessed Saint Constance that the kid was doomed to die before he'd reached age fourteen. Pepper's life has subsequently been lived in a haze of anxiousness and prayer; he goes to confession every day, his mother tends to weep whenever she sees him, and his aunt stuffs his pockets with messages to take to the Great Beyond. When his fourteenth birthday comes around, Pepper decides to make a last-ditch attempt to avoid his doom and, for the first time in his life, rebels - stepping completely out of his life and usurping somebody else's (in this case, a merchant sea captain's.)
A complicated, nerve-wracking, and often very funny journey through a multitude of different identities ensues, involving everything from an illegal death ship to newspaper fraud to the French Foreign Legion to the Hongriot-Pleuviez Amendment (what do you mean you've never heard of the Hongriet-Pleuviez, it's a disgrace and needs to be repealed RIGHT AWAY, especially Clause Five). And everywhere he turns, Pepper still sees the heavenly host hunting him down to make good on his overdue death:
By now, angels might be lurking around any and every corner, collars turned up, stiletto knives in their pockets. Saints were probably stopping boys in the street, demanding to see their identity cards, bundling them into the backs of black vans or flaming chariots.
What I actually was reminded of most, in terms of sensibility, was the film Amelie - it has the same beautiful execution, unexpected humor and just-slightly-surreal edge that balances on the brink of magical realism without ever quite tipping over. And Pepper himself reminds me of a slightly darker Amelie Poulain, in his naievete, his isolation, and his idiosyncratic determination to help people as best he can. It also features, by the end, an extremely unusual found family that I think is going to remain as one of my favorites for all time.