Fred et Violette
FRED ET VIOLETTE
By Stephen Zeifman
Manifest Manuscripts
Published 2023
“Violette became the howling beast, the wounded howling beast, the chien méchant, the
growling snarling, teeth-baring attack dog…” So begins this raw, often raunchy, evocative, and provocative exploration of the underbelly of the human condition. Fred et Violette is the story of escape to the freedom of life without guardrails in the demi-monde of Montreal from the suffocating
constraints and the rage-inducing memories of a father’s sexual abuse in Coursegoules, a mountain village in the south of France. Love, lust, physical and psychic labour, along with a cast of colourful characters fill these pages. Violette becomes a local sensation and almost a movie star as well as the object of an artist’s desire and her artistic expression. Fred finds his true self through physical work, having put aside his writerly aspirations. A ménage à trois develops – then unravels. He wends his way to resolving the pain inflicted by his family growing up.
Off to Paris, where Violette’s sister, whom she firmly protected as she grew up, has become a famous novelist and a cause célèbre. Long estranged, the sisters rediscover their deep filial love even as they are each drawn back to Coursegoules where their father is dying from cancer. There are no easy answers here but there is a resolution of sorts as our lead characters, free from one set of conventions, create lives of unsettled redemption.”