FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1997. All Rights Reserved.
Affairs of Art by Lise Bissonnette.
Translated by Sheila Fischman.
Anansi, $16.95. 119 pp.Affairs of Art is one long flashback from a dramatic moment in the present. It opens with the funeral of Francois Dubeau, sophisticated Montreal art critic. Dubeau has become an early victim of a new disease that preys especially upon gay men. His mother presides over the small memorial ceremony in her son's apartment. Dubeau's final request is that his mother read aloud, to all his assembled friends and colleagues, a letter left in his room. For some reason he wanted to make a last announcement. For some reason he wanted there to be "witnesses." But the all-important letter has disappeared. Searching for Dubeau's final testimony, the mourners find only a broken window and a puff of breeze.
The story that follows takes a long loop into Dubeau's past - and into the truth reserved for readers of the vanished letter. This "letter from beyond the grave" strategy leads Bissonnette to present all the events in summary. The result is like fast-forwarding through a pretty good movie. You get some vivid impressions, but it could all be done more slowly, with more detail. Bissonnette prefers to move rapidly through Dubeau's beginnings as an anxious protegé who becomes the master of other aspiring art writers. She swiftly presents his explorations of Europe, the art world and his own sexuality. He makes surprising discoveries in all three areas. He develops a persona that serves him well, but begins to trap him. Bissonnette's central question is whether, in death, Dubeau can let his mask fall. (And if he does, will someone catch it and stick it back on?)
In Dubeau's art world, everyone is both an original and a bit of a fake. Dubeau's final originality is that he tries to expose his own imposture. But even after his death the image he created maintains its own life. The truth about Dubeau will serve some and harm others. Affairs of Art becomes a "whodunit" that's not about who committed a murder. Instead, it asks who has stolen what appear to be the facts and entombed Francois Dubeau in his own lies. If it's worse to kill Dubeau's truth than to kill his body, then Bissonnette has picked a really interesting murderer.
Harry Vandervlist
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