Vingt-quatre heures en tesselles mosaïcales by Hédi Bouraoui

Abstract

Reviewed by: Vingt-quatre heures en tesselles mosaïcales by Hédi Bouraoui Alain Ranwez Bouraoui, Hédi. Vingt-quatre heures en tesselles mosaïcales. CMC, 2017. ISBN 978-2-924319-39-0. Pp. 277. An important "avant-propos" is offered by the author, which gives the reader an engaging head start to these twenty-four innovative and intriguing short stories. The "tesselles mosaïcales" refer to Canada's immigration policy, which proposes assimilation while retaining a distinct original cultural identity, albeit still contributing to the newly adopted country. This policy is in sharp contrast to that of the United States, which prefers the melting pot, thereby annihilating the original cultural identity. Hédi Bouraoui, a native of Tunisia and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, is the author of novels, poems, and literary criticism. His latest literary ambition is a collection of divergent and lyrical short stories full of cultural surprises which allows the reader to come to terms not only with an original sense of reality but with cultural diversity as well. As in the style of short stories, Bouraoui presents us with small casts of self-contained characters, at times with an added original touch or an existentialist situation evoking an epiphanic final moment. But this work seems to be Bouraoui's literary effort not only to continue but to also revitalize the art of recounting the socalled novella/novelette/short story as a literary experiment, as he had previously performed for poetry in his La réfugiée. In this recent prose opus, however, Bouraoui seeks to revitalize the short story"pour y insérer une dose de poésie à relever le piquant de l'intrigue restée figée dans le genre traditionnel! Autrement dit, la préparation cousue de fil blanc à gratifier le lecteur/la lectrice d'une solution finale bouclant l'histoire et ses adversités/conflits" (11). Bouraoui also amuses and teases the reader with his mots-concepts or neologisms which he incorporates in italics in many of his stories. These created italicized words seek to make the reader either pause, decode, or meditate as to whether these words evoke humor such as in "se tentaculant en pieuvre croupionne" (159) or sarcasm as in "L'amour-propre de l'employé glissa une dernière fois sur la chauv-inité traitre du crâne salkinien" (162). The twenty-four short stories are cleverly brought together and offer the reader a wondrous world where at times cultures collide, incomprehension of values are revealed for their hypocrisy, insidious [End Page 256] unwillingness to accept new concepts is divulged, and stories often evolve in an ironic ending. This reviewer wholeheartedly enjoyed the multicultural depiction of the racist attitudes portrayed in Bouraoui's entry entitled "Brouille au coude du festin mosaïcal" and the unveiling of hypocrisy in another called"Noirébo."The other stories also offer a delightful and enriching reading. Alain Ranwez Metropolitan State University of Denver, emeritus Copyright © 2018 American Association of Teachers of French