Contemporary Authors

• The Unknown Huntsman - 2016 Baraka Books, Montreal, QC, Canada

• From Publisher -

  Jean-Michel Fortier was born in Quebec City in 1987. He completed a master’s degree in literature at Université Laval before moving to Montreal, where he currently works as a copy editor. The Unknown Huntsman is his first book.

QUOTED: "This is an intriguing and original novel, the ending of which ... introduce[s] an entirely new level of absurdity."

The Unknown Huntsman
263.38 (Sept. 19, 2016): p44.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/

The Unknown Huntsman Jean-Michel Fortier, trans. from the French by Katherine Hastings. QC Fiction (IPG, dist.), $19.95 trade paper (162p) ISBN 978-1-77186-082-6

Quebecois author Fortier's debut novel is a surreal, offbeat look at life in a small, unnamed village and all the attendant complications and contradictions. Depending on each character's perspective, the village is either close-knit or claustrophobic, its residents genuinely interested in their neighbors or just nosy. Villagers with names such as Father Wavery, Dr. Harmer, and Mr. Leaven (the baker) give the story a feel of an allegorical fairy tale.

Strange crimes and accidents keep befalling the villagers, yet the emotional reactions of the others to these incidents are always a little off. The secret identity of the "we" narrator, who functions like an unreliable Greek chorus, adds intrigue. The novel is punctuated by twice-weekly village meetings often led by the Professor, an author- or God-like figure seemingly immune to repercussions even when his actions are extreme. As the novel progresses, its metafictional elements move to the fore, leaving readers wondering about the identity of the mysterious Professor and his relationship to the narrator. This is an intriguing and original novel, the ending of which does not wrap things up neatly so much as introduce an entirely new level of absurdity. (Nov.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Unknown Huntsman." Publishers Weekly, 19 Sept. 2016, p. 44+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA464352694&it=r&asid=9203de0204139f227b2208fa2fd044a1. Accessed 29 May 2017.

Gale Document Number: GALE|A464352694

• Tony's Reading List
  https://tonysreadinglist.wordpress.com/2016/10/30/the-unknown-huntsman-by-jean-michel-fortier-review/
  Word count: 1178

  QUOTED: "The Unknown Huntsman is a cracking read, a book you’ll race through, but it certainly provides more questions than answers. In the end, it’s a clever examination of the collective hysteria and collusion that arises when a group of people is stranded outside mainstream society, and of the way anything outside the norm is frowned upon, occasionally even eliminated. With his careful blend of farce and black humour, Fortier has created an entertaining novel which works on several levels. It might not do much for Quebec tourism, but it’s a definitely a good advertisement for the province’s literature."

  October 30, 2016
  ‘The Unknown Huntsman’ by Jean-Michel Fortier (Review)

  img_5527Not too long ago, I posted on Eric Dupont’s Life in the Court of Matane, an enjoyable novel about a less-than-perfect childhood. This was the debut offering of QC Fiction, a small press presenting Quebec French literature in English. They’re planning to release three books in total this year, and the next one will be out in a couple of days’ time. This second release has much in common with Dupont’s book, including the rural setting and copious dollops of humour; however, there’s also a fair amount that’s sinister here too. Don’t go out into the woods alone…

  *****
  Jean-Michel Fortier’s The Unknown Huntsman (translated by Katherine Hastings, review copy courtesy of the publisher) describes strange goings-on in a remote village somewhere (presumably) in the Quebec hinterland. The adults of the community come together on Monday evenings to discuss the week’s events, a gathering usually dominated by idle gossip and petty complaints. After an hour or so of letting off steam, the villagers head home, leaving the small room underneath their church empty for another week…

  …or so they think. In fact, when Friday evening rolls around, the room is packed again with a meeting of a rather different kind. Here, the mysterious Professor rages in front of a selection of adoring, if slightly nervous, followers, mocking those who attend the gatherings earlier in the week and demanding loyalty from his faithful flock. Of course, in a such a small community, interruptions are always possible – but the Professor is prepared for all eventualities:

  “Good evening, I… I’m looking for my eldest son, I thought I saw him go into the church… my Samuel, he likes to hide in here sometimes. But, what are you all doing here? And you, up there in the front, I know you, what are you doing here, Mr. —“
  Alas, she doesn’t have time to say our Professor’s name; just as she points a finger at him, he pulls the trigger.
  p.39 (QC Fiction, 2016)

  All of which leaves the reader wondering what on earth is going on in the village and, of course, who the Professor might be…

  The Unknown Huntsman of the title is a red herring, an invention dreamed up by some of the complicit villagers to throw the others off the scent. The body of the unfortunate Lisa Campbell, the local hairdresser, is dragged into the woods, and when it’s discovered, suspicion soon falls on a mysterious outsider, a shadowy figure threatening the village. Of course, having been a witness to the murder, the reader is aware that the real killer is somewhere in the village, and we expect that the focus of the novel will be on working out his identity.

  But that’s not the way it pans out, as Fortier’s novel is less a mystery novel than a clever work examining an isolated community, and how they spend their days. The novel is told in two sets of alternating chapters: one describes the events of the Monday meetings with a humorous, sardonic eye; the other focuses on the Friday gatherings, with the Professor’s following torn between trembling ecstasy and a dread of what might happen next. Both are narrated by an unknown ‘we’, who occasionally intrude into the main narrative, but the style of the sections are very different. Katherine Hastings skilfully brings the clear distinction of the two strands into English, with the first part full of meandering, comma-laden sentences and the darker side of the second part underlined by the short, clipped style.

  Most readers will have given up on the idea of finding out who the murderer actually is long before the end of the book with Fortier far more interested in using the murder as a catalyst, one that will shake life up in the small community. Gradually, we (!) begin to sense the underlying schizophrenic nature of the narrative; in such a small settlement (village actually appears to be a bit of an exaggeration), it’s hard to imagine that the Friday meetings could actually take place without the knowledge of the law-abiding Monday group. Which just makes the whole affair even creepier…

  The writer is obviously playing with the reader, with the whole story moving dangerously into Kafkaesque territory, even if the names of the villagers suggest something more Dickensian. It’s hard to take people like Agnes Letterly (the librarian), Mr. Leaven (the pompous baker) and Doctor Harmer (a doddering physician who should have been pensioned off years ago) too seriously, meaning that the book becomes ever more allegorical, and comical:

  Angelina White looks at Mrs. Latvia, who looks at Baker Leaven, who looks at Doctor Harmer, who looks at Father Wavery, who scratches his knee. You could hear a pin drop if it weren’t for the doctor wheezing from his asthma and all those brains whirring a mile a minute, including ours, but what should we do, what should we do, if we’re going to do something, it will mean interrupting the meeting, but that’s never been done before, at least not as far back as we can remember. (p.98)

  The late arrival of an outsider initially threatens to get to the bottom of matters, but in an almost *anti*-Kafkaesque move, the bureaucracy (in the form of a census taker) is no match for the little community. For the first time, the ditherers at the Monday meeting come together as one – the government has no right to ask questions, and it certainly won’t be getting any answers.

  The Unknown Huntsman is a cracking read, a book you’ll race through, but it certainly provides more questions than answers. In the end, it’s a clever examination of the collective hysteria and collusion that arises when a group of people is stranded outside mainstream society, and of the way anything outside the norm is frowned upon, occasionally even eliminated. With his careful blend of farce and black humour, Fortier has created an entertaining novel which works on several levels. It might not do much for Quebec tourism, but it’s a definitely a good advertisement for the province’s literature

• Malahat Review
  http://web.uvic.ca/malahat/reviews/198reviews_mullins.html
  Word count: 913

  QUOTED: "Fortier’s debut novel serves up a strange and colourful cast of characters who are in a nearly constant state of confusion. Set in an unnamed village in the middle of nowhere at the end of the road, a village with only a handful of inhabitants, The Unknown Huntsman draws readers into a world of intrigue and gossip, populated by busybodies and control freaks."
  "The absurdity, irony, and dark humour make this an exuberant novel and a compelling read."

  Fiction Review by Rhonda Mullins
  Jean-Michel Fortier, translated by Katherine Hastings, The Unknown Huntsman (Montreal: QC Fiction, 2016). Paperbound, 192 pp., $19.95.

  The Unknown HuntsmanInhabiting an uncertain space between knowing and not knowing, readers could almost join the characters in Jean-Michel Fortier’s novel The Unknown Huntsman (Katherine Hastings, translator). Fortier’s debut novel serves up a strange and colourful cast of characters who are in a nearly constant state of confusion. Set in an unnamed village in the middle of nowhere at the end of the road, a village with only a handful of inhabitants, The Unknown Huntsman draws readers into a world of intrigue and gossip, populated by busybodies and control freaks. It is a world where the apothecary announces to the entire village what he prescribes for whom, and where the villagers are stunned by the simplest of things. This is also a village where residents mount petitions to reveal what is written on scraps of paper found while nosily rifling through another person’s drawers.

  The characters include Leaven the Baker, the mayor’s wife, Morosity Gross, fast friends Albania and Mrs. Latvia, and the incompetent Dr. Harmer, who is well past his prime and lives up to his name. Then there is the nameless narrator, who marvels at the slightest development and is the novel’s creepy voice, referring to himself or herself as “we.” “Our voice quivers slightly,” he or she says, when asking a question of his or her betters.

  The residents of the village meet twice a week: the Monday meeting is used to air dirty laundry and petty grievances against fellow citizens. Accusations of bread thieving and pen poaching fly, leaving the villagers breathless with the intrigue and astonishing turns of events. There is a great deal of collective gasping. Matters are settled by a show of hands and sealed with a collective e basta, an indulgence offered to the village’s Italian resident, Giorgio Cantarini, whose wife boiled to death in a laundry incident.

  The Friday meetings, which only a subset of the villagers attend, are secret, and presided over by a gun-toting professor, who belittles and berates them, and to whom the narrator refers as their master. They are desperate to please him, eager for the paltry honours he bestows upon them, such as the time he let them hold his coat. He wields his gun like a gavel, shooting out windows over false accusations and pointing it at anyone who speaks out of turn. The purpose of the Friday meetings is unclear, with the only allusion to its function ending with an ellipsis.

  The intrigue builds around the deaths of two villagers, both deemed accidental by the village powers that be, but that are still shrouded in mystery. Some of the villagers grow suspicious and try to follow the chain of clues, which includes licorice wrappers, overheard phone calls, a young girl’s diary, and bits of paper. It seems there’s trouble in Tulipland, as Mrs. Latvia is fond of saying.

  While some villagers are trying to solve the mysteries, others endeavour to cover them up, particularly once a stranger shows up in the village. He is their first visitor in ten years, a self-proclaimed census-taker who is asking awkward questions, such as people’s names, ages, and occupations. The professor does his best to run him off, making it known that “Nobody here needs to be sensed.”

  The tone Fortier creates can be cheerful and chatty, but there is something sinister about this close-knit, closed-minded community. A cloud of indoctrination hangs over the place, and the sense of awe, represented by emphatic proper nouns—the Stranger, the Petition, the Census-taker—makes for an unsettling atmosphere.
  As the intrigue unfolds, more questions are raised than answered, as Fortier breaks with the convention of neatly tying off his story lines. The mayor and the professor call for the novel to end before all can be revealed. “There is one step left, one last step, to ensure we all enjoy eternal peace. To end, once and for all, this damned season, this damned novel.”

  The absurdity, irony, and dark humour make this an exuberant novel and a compelling read. The Unknown Huntsman is all about voice, which translator Katherine Hastings captures flawlessly. She deftly handles the wordplay, the humour, even the malapropisms. It is pitch perfect, not a word out of place—an accomplishment for this first-time literary translator.

  For the original French version, Le chasseur inconnu (Éditions La Mèche), the Montreal-based Fortier was nominated for the 2015 Grand Prix littéraire Archambault, a Quebec literary award whose past laureates include Michel Tremblay and Kim Thúy. The honour is well-deserved, as this debut novel is highly original, shifting between levity and darkness with a masterful hand.

  —Rhonda Mullins

  As in The Malahat Review, 198, Spring 2017, 114-116

• Globe & Mail
  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/jean-michel-fortiers-the-unknown-huntsman-cora-sires-behold-things-beautiful-and-kaie-kelloughs-accordeon-reviewed/article33979471/?cmpid=rss1
  Word count: 211

  QUOTED: "An absurdist fable bringing to mind Pirandello, Fortier’s debut is a dark commentary on community and intolerance."

  Jade Colbert

  The Unknown Huntsman

  By Jean-Michel Fortier, translated by Katherine Hastings

  QC Fiction, 192 pages, $19.95

  Monday evenings the village meets in the church basement to dispense provincial justice. Gossip, innuendo, outright slander, grandstanding, scapegoating, meddling and deflection: neighbour weighs neighbour’s deeds of the past week. The village rests at the end of a road on the edge of a forest – no one from outside the village has reason to go there, and as the village sees it, that’s for the best. Much of the village meets again on Fridays, secretly, at the behest of their mysterious leader. Then, the local hairdresser receives a bullet between the eyes. At the Monday meeting the village blames a huntsman, an unknown huntsman, but who is he? And who is the “we” who narrates this novel? And who is the Professor who inspires such slavish devotion and selective memory in his followers? The questions come to a head with the arrival of a stranger. An absurdist fable bringing to mind Pirandello, Fortier’s debut is a dark commentary on community and intolerance.