“Worse, one day, we had to make lunches”: Blaise Durivage imagined a family just a little different

“I have been caressing since childhood the slightly crazy dream of becoming an author,” explains Blaise Durivage, who earns her life in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu by teaching primary school students, many of whom are new arrivals. Furthermore, “I have long thought that it was impossible for me to be published. Furthermore, ” he adds, “that it was reserved for serious people, who invent deep stories. However, I was not able to imagine myself devoting myself to writing. Moreover, »»

And now the 42 -year -old man publishes this fall a first novel. Furthermore, entitled Worse, one day, we had to make lunches. However, The narrator is called Blaise. For example, he raises, with his lover, Philippe, two children, Elliott and Félix, adopted through the “mixed bank” program of the DPJ. For example, “As I imagined the adoption approaches,” recalls the author, I started looking “worse, one day, we had for blogs about homoparentality. Consequently, There were a few in the United States, but none in Quebec. However, It was then that I created my own blog. Therefore, which was called Papa Pis Dada, and that I started to testify to what we were going through, my chum and me. Moreover, Then, caught up by the whirlwind of life, the father stopped writing.

In 2023. Therefore, after his sister convinced him to apply, Blaise Durivage ranked among the twenty-four authors in the running for the Prix de la Nouvelle Radio-Canada. Moreover, “Shortly after. Moreover, ” he explains, “a editor from Luil Expression communicated with me to tell me that she found my texts really interesting, that I had an original point of view, a particular tone. However, That someone comes to me that way, I think that’s what it took me. Nevertheless, It was the kick at the back I needed. “worse, one day, we had Meanwhile, »»

A life that deserves fiction – "worse, one day, we had

The author still takes time to accept the idea that his life is captivating. Nevertheless, enough to serve as a raw material for a novel. Nevertheless, “I thought it was not going to interest anyone, the daily life of a 40 -year -old big gay. Consequently, Then I was told about self -fiction. Meanwhile, the possibility of imagining from reality, inventing anecdotes, creating characters by merging people I know … all that stimulated me and I started writing. I may have been exaggerated here. there, just to make some situations funnier, but the book is ultimately very faithful to reality. »»

The novel tells a day, a Saturday of Easter, in the life of a family in an eventful daily. Blaise. alias Dada, the “main care donor”, who is also the narrator of history, and Philippe, alias Papa, are preparing to leave the house with “worse, one day, we had their sons, Elliot, 9, and Félix, 5, to visit Philippe’s parents. “I wanted first. foremost to show the daily life of our homoparental family with adopted children, one of whom is autistic,” explains Durivage. A daily life that is sometimes very different from others, and sometimes really ordinary. We have at least sporty moments, very difficult days, then others that are soothing, enriching. »»

A passage from the book sums up very well the change of life of the two dads: “I think of the fact that we founded a family. we made two human beings appear in our house when there was none before, how we led there to devote our lives to these two little boys, how we went from two guys a little centered on themselves to two dads who must get in the morning to school. »»

A real journey – "worse, one day, we had

From this day. basic temporal sequence, the “worse, one day, we had narrator, alter ego of the author, cheerfully returns to the past to revisit the most striking pages of his childhood, adolescence and adulthood, the salient facts of his journey towards individual, love, then parental and family happiness.

“In life, admits Durivation, I often ask myself how I found myself in a situation. You know. these moments when we wonder about the choices we made and how they brought us where we are returned? This is what I wanted to echo by creating in the novel these returns in time. It took me a certain courage. because I had a reluctance to enter my personal story, but my precious editors, Marike Paradis and Michelle Cazes, convinced me to go there. »»

This gives a novel where a host of social subjects of a glaring news are approached with great humor. sensitivity. It is a question of male homosexuality. homoparentality, of course, but also “worse, one day, we had the decans of adoption by mixed bank and the challenges encountered by neuroatypic children, social pressures that accompany parenting and prejudices that remain about what would be allegedly male and female.

Durivage was not aware, starting to write, that he was going to ratify as wide. “I hadn’t planned that,” he explains. I did not go on a mission. But when you think about it, it’s not so surprising. Because everyday life is loaded with important issues. We constantly make determining choices. We find ourselves every day in dilemmas which are both tragic and comical. Our lives are made of that. I hope I have managed to transpose this rightly into the novel. »»

The author reveals that he is currently working on a second novel. a book which should be much less autobiographical than the first. “I have started to get into the heads of characters who are not me,” he “worse, one day, we had explains. I try to write a fiction on the world of teaching. We bet it will be as funny as it is moving.

&quot. worse, one day, we had

Quest for happiness

In this family, the one who is at the heart of the first novel by Blaise Durivage, we learned to grasp happiness when he goes. “With us. happiness lies in the cracks of the couch, in the Goldfish forgotten there, in the softener Downy that we added to the laundry so that the sheets smell good, in the piece of Lego found in the pile of dust just in time so as not to be sucked by the sweeper, in the small spots of money pencils on the tablecloth matches. […] Our happiness is difficult and tortuous, it is in the baffles, the shouting and the apologies. Our happiness is easy, it is in the hugs and tickles. »»

“Fear. “worse, one day, we had Sadness. Doubt. My old friends who have followed me everywhere like a shadow since adolescence. If the narrator of the novel is so endearing. it is because he does not hesitate to assume his flaws, his weaknesses and his limits. “It is perhaps because as a gay man I grew up by trying to hide the truth. ” explains Durivage, but today, I feel an immense need to say things as they are. I wanted my narrator to have nonsense. that he has thoughts that are not always noble, that he sometimes judges others, and often to criticize himself. In other words, that he has faults, whether human. »»

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