Tarmac

by Nicolas Dickner

Pauvre Hope Randall : elle est née dans une famille où chaque membre reçoit sa propre vision de la fin du monde, accompagnée d’une date précise, différente pour chacun. De quoi alimenter plus d’un manuel d’histoire de la psychiatrie. Prévenue que l’apocalypse aurait lieu à l’été 1989, sa mère a cherché à fuir son destin en Lada, pour échouer à 1200 kilomètres de Yarmouth. Parties pour l’Ouest, mère et fille n’ont d’autre choix que d’attendre l’inévitable dans le bas du fleuve.

Entre en scène Michel Bauermann, ou Mickey, rejeton d’un clan qui produit du béton depuis plusieurs générations, passionnément irradié par les taches de rousseur et les 195 points de Q.I. de la belle. Hope trouvera un certain réconfort dans les longues soirées en sa compagnie au bunker familial, à l’abri des obsessions maternelles. Mais on ne peut rien prédire lorsqu’on est une Randall et qu’on a rendez-vous avec l’apocalypse.

L’auteur de Nikolski vous entraîne dans les hauts lieux du vingtième siècle (New York, Tokyo et Rivière-du-Loup) au fil d’une étonnante histoire d’amour préapocalyptique où passent David Suzuki, Albert Einstein, quelques zombies, un gourou accidentel et des kilomètres de ramens.

Bienvenue sur le tarmac, lieu de tous les impossibles.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Roman, School, Humor, France, Contemporary

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Nicolas Dickner est né à Rivière-du-Loup, a voyagé en Amérique latine et en Europe avant de jeter l’ancre à Québec puis à Montréal, où il vit aujourd’hui avec sa famille. Il signe en 2005 Nikolski, qui remporte le Prix des libraires du Québec, le Prix littéraire des collégiens ainsi que le prix Anne-Hébert et qui est, à ce jour, traduit dans une dizaine de langues. Tarmac, son deuxième roman paru en 2009, est également traduit dans plusieurs pays. En compagnie de Dominique Fortier, il signe Révolutions en 2014. Six degrés de liberté est son troisième roman.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite devouring this book as soon as it was in my hands (the synopsis was just enticing enough), there was some trepidation on my part. Nicolas Dickner gained recognition last year after winning CBC’s Canada Reads competition for his previous book, Nikolski. For the life of me, I don’t know how that came to pass. Nikolski, for me, represented what some claimed to be a growing problem with Canadian literature—that it was limp and non-committal, with narratives that lacked direction and too many esoteric plot threads just quirky enough to sound great on the jacket of a book, but sadly remain one-dimensional, never really seeming to propel the characters or story. In other words, no beginning, no real arc or ending to be found, just a whole lot of self-exploratory middle. I remember finishing Nikolski and wondering what, if anything, there was to take from the book.

It was the premise that drew me to Dickner’s new book, Apocalypse for Beginners. At the tail end of the 1980s, the young narrator, Mickey, meets a girl named Hope Randall who lives in a converted pet shop with her borderline-insane mother, Ann. Why is Ann teetering on the edge of sanity? Because every member of the Randall clan, reaching back for generations, has had a crystal clear vision of the apocalypse, right down to the exact day and date. Upon the passing of each suspected final day, when the world continues to spin and another seemingly unavoidable apocalypse has passed by without so much as a whimper, the owner of the failed prediction would leave their sanity at the door and lose whatever was left of their mind. Hope’s mother, for some reason, was given a less than precise date to go on, and spends her days neglecting her daughter while she researches all possible ways to extrapolate a more precise day for her anticipated apocalyptic event. Why would she do this? Because you can’t be a proper Randall without the precision of the vision.

Hope, on the other hand, has been offered a day and date for her own end of days countdown, and it is the journey of discovery she takes with Mickey—and on her own—to understand the date and the seemingly impossible coincidences surrounding it that provide the book’s structure.

Instantly the characters of Hope and Mickey are likable and, though potentially too quirky for some, very relatable. Dickner is a self-professed child of the 80s and it shows, as such things like the fall of the Berlin wall (and talk of its rather shoddy construction) and the fall of the USSR provide much of the contemplation behind not only the coming end of the world, but what it means for a world to end in the first place.

Though there are still some elements that feel almost too esoteric for their own good (such as the ghostly disappearance of a surveillance-happy Japanese not-so-wannabe prophet from the bathroom of a Tokyo baseball stadium), Apocalypse for Beginners is a much tighter, more focussed work than Nikolski. Dickner realizes his strength is in his characters and the connection they’ve forged, and it is only when that connection is strained that the disquiet of the subject matter becomes a little overbearing. But that strain is absolutely necessary, and the distance it enforces sets emotions in play for a genuinely heart-warming finale. And when I set the book down, I was smiling.

That should say it all.

[Ariane Brosseau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh. My. Nicolas Dickner.
Depuis ma lecture de Nikolski fin 2013 (déjà j'étais en retard sur les nouvelles), je suis profondément amoureuse de Nicolas Dickner. En tant qu'auteur. Évidemment. Je vous entends déjà dire «Ouain, mais tu sais que Barthes a dit que l'auteur est mort...». Ouain, bin, c'est pas grave. Nicolas Dickner, je l'aime, et ses narrateurs, je les marierais. (Probablement l'une des nombreuses raisons de mon long célibat!)

Et si on en venait aux faits? Après avoir longtemps dormi avec Nikolski sous mon oreiller, et, bizarrement, ne pas m'être interrogée sur les autres publications de son auteur, je suis tombée, en plein Salon du livre 2015, sur Six degrés de liberté . Coup de foudre à peine moins violent. Nicolas Dickner refaisait surface! (Il faut dire que je ne suis pas habituée aux auteurs toujours vivants et littérairement actifs. En fait, je ne suis même pas habituée à aimer un auteur. J'aime généralement un livre ou deux, mais jamais toute une œuvre. Sauf pour Jane Austen. Mon prochain chat, je le nomme Dickner, promis juré.)

J'avais dit qu'on venait aux faits, right? Tarmac , c'est le grand oublié de mon exploration de cet auteur fabuleux. Paru en 2009, bien avant ma rencontre avec Nikolski pourtant, ce n'est qu'au dernier Salon du livre que je l'ai eu sous les yeux, trônant sur la table de dédicaces de Vous-Savez-Qui.

C’est l’histoire de deux ados qui attendent la fin du monde. Voilà, c’est dit. Michel Bauermann et Hope Randall sont des personnages dickneriens typiques, c’est-à-dire jeunes, hyper brillants, connectés au monde et étalant leurs vastes connaissances théoriques sur divers sujets [ici la bombe atomique, l’électricité des citrons, le béton et les ramens Captain Mofuku]. Comme dans Nikolski , s’y côtoient la fuite et le fabuleux destin. Et, mis à part le style de Nicolas Dickner, qui relève du grand art, je crois que c’est ce que je préfère de ses livres : le hasard des rencontres, celles dont le lecteur est témoin, mais pas les personnages, le hasard qui aligne l’Apocalypse de Hope, la date d’expiration des ramens et la date d’arrivée des règles, le hasard qui rend l’univers dicknerien hyperréaliste, clos.

Et, à chaque fois, ça me réconforte profondément.

[Tina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm struggling because while I don't think this book is 3 stars for me personally, I would somehow feel bad about giving it 2 stars because it isn't a bad book at all. It's just... it felt really rushed. Events unfolded in little snippets but there were no lulls in-between to properly get to know the characters. It was a cutesy, quirky little story that felt entirely unbelievable and though I only finished it yesterday, I hardly remember it. I guess if you're looking for a super quick read that has an interesting structure and is fun, this is a good novel for that purpose.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vraiment cool. Encore un univers particulier avec une narration et une intrigue qui sortent du lot. J'ai beaucoup aimé me laisser embarquer, tout comme j'ai apprécié la structure des chapitres et les clins d'oeil de leurs titres. Il me faudra lire Nikolski plus tôt que tard!

[Holden Wall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't love it! Big manic pixie dream girl energy, and written from the persepctive of the guy who's smitten with her. It was interesting to read something set in Quebec in the late 80s though - haven't seen much of that. Not sure how this book has won awards

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

With deft juxtaposition of the improbably tender and the wildly hilarious with grim facts extrapolated from the statistics of extinction, Nicolas Dicknerdelivers a penetrating glimpse into a future that is a little too close for comfort.

"As recent as it was,history was already running in a loop." p46

"The Randall family was full of surprises, most of them not very good."p114 When adolescent Mickey B spots Hope Randall slouched in the bleachers of the empty stadium, intent on her Russian grammar, he is instantly magnetized. Their friendship is very good, until it isn't.

"Alone in a vacant lot, I watched the world disintegrate around me" p229

"What good was it resorting to chance if you could not manage to trust it?" p60

But there are things that Mickey has learned in his time with Hope:
-television is the enemy p115
-the bungalow is the primary weapon of mass destruction
-all units of measurement are...absurdities with different degrees of accuracy. Everything else is cultural. p53

What really concerns him is "the industrial transformation of human beings into chipboard".p231

Still, he has to wait for a clue from his lost Hope before he can gather together the courage to put the end behind him and set out after a new beginning.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off well, but when the two main characters separate two thirds of the way through the novel it really suffers.

[Elyse NG · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5* OK,j'aime Nicolas Dickner, c'est confirmé, je lui pardonne même ses fins sans conclusion formelles.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable and fast read. I sometimes felt that the author was trying too hard to cram in references to Canadiana, but he achieved an appealing quirkiness. I was also drawn in by the underlying discussion about what the apocalypse might really mean. Apocalyptic images are rampant and they have, to some extent, become embedded in the way we see the world and our own lives.

[Mireille Duval · Rating 4 out of 5]

J'ai beaucoup aimé! Surtout le début - un peu moins après le départ de Hope pour le Japon, qui m'a semblé un peu décousu par rapport au reste. L'amitié entre Hope et Mickey, tranquille et pleine de petits moments, était fort amusante à lire.

C'est pas important, mais: j'adore le look de l'édition Coda. Les citrons à l'intérieur!

[Edo Guglielmetti · Rating 2 out of 5]

Prose très légère, mise en scène du personnage dont l’effort de le rendre « sympathiquement excentrique » dépasse le résultat, bref: une agréable lecture de plage ou de metro mais rien de plus.
Poorly written novel; the author’s intention of portraying the female character funny and nonconformist is too obvious. Could be a decent beach read.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago but for the life of me couldn't remember it at all. But still, I liked it. I lived through those times, close to where this takes place and it was nice to be able to relate to most of it.

[Marie Bourassa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Que j'aime Nicolas Dickner.

[Sophie Gervais · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a fairly fluffy read.

Not really my style or my thing of a book.

It was still an okay read, but nothing too special really.

2.9/5

[Jessica Di Salvio · Rating 3 out of 5]

La narration est particulière, mais j’ai bien aimé l’histoire. Peut être que j’aurais plus accroché si je l’avais lu papier au lieu d’audio par contre.

[Margot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Waaaaaw, quelle belle lecture obligatoire.
L’écriture est si belle, jamais la fin du monde ne m’a semblé si harmonieuse

[Marie Blanchet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t like this book. I think. This assessement comes with a giant question mark because it’s hard to profess disliking a thing when you hardly even know what it’s supposed to be. Is this a giant essay about the social trauma of constantly expecting the end of the world, disguised as a novel? I thought it was, and that would have been a good place to stop! But then the book kept going, baffingly, and muddled it’s own (maybe?) theme.

Is this legitimately attempting to be a weird as heck romance with extra steps, but all it manages to be is an heteronormative, almost insulting take on the manic pixie dream girl, who almost manages to make both characters likeable but then butchers it in the most insulting ending of all times?

Was what I interpreted out of the ending even what was suggested by the author, who for the life of him cannot make any meaning plain but keep losing himself in increasingly convulted metaphors?

Reviewers on GoodReads keep talking about the plot of this book, to which I want to say: what plot?! Certainly, events happen. Most of them are even related to eachother, in a linear fashion, with what passes as internal coherency. But a sequential series of events does not a plot make. A book need to have a purpose, a goal, a quest, maybe a theme.

When you end the book, you are supposed to feel like the characters got something out of the journey.

And listen; this book certainly seems like it has all of these things. Like a dude in your writing class, it comes in with a certain grandeur, and then attempts to make a narrative point but drowns it under metaphors and similes. The end result is something that would certainly be a joy to analyze in class, but I’m fairly certain that none of the readers would come out of it with the same interpretation. Which is…. fine, I suppose, for certain types of ~literary fiction~. But this book just feels like it’s trying too hard. Which is a shame; as I said, the characters are genuinely likeable. The concept is interesting, and the setting (the very city I live in!) is great. I just wish that the book had done more with all of these elements. I kept reading, because the author kept adding in more interesting and intriguing elements. A japanese prophet! A trip around the world to get to the bottom of the Randall family visions! A mysterious roomate!

But then the author proceeds to drop the ball on all of those elements. I think all three of those things ended up being ~metaphors to ~teach the main character about ­~something, but the point of a thematic element is that you have to make it evident somewhat. I’m not asking for obviousness, but if I’m gonna be reading a book with a cold drink outside on my porch, I don’t want to have to re-read it seven times and annotate the text like I’m preparing a dissertation before I start to get the story.

Once more, a book that I bought in person, from a physical book store, only on the strenght of it’s blurb and cover ended up being very dissapointing. You know, when a book has apocalyptic visions as it’s primary concept, I expect to at least get to the bottom of them, or get a little magic action, or the actual apocalypse, or something. Or, I don’t know, if you want to make them a ~symbol for some thematic element or another, make it clear.

I just feel like there are at least six or seven MUCH better books to be written with every element present in Tarmac, and that’s a damn shame. When a book ends up feeling like a waste of time, not just for me but also for the two main characters who I was rooting for, then it’s not a good look.

You might argue that the two main characters are in fact pretty solidly implied to get an Happy Ever After, even if it’s the most heteronormative and boring HEA one could think of. But this still doesn’t make this a satisfying ending, as Hope certainly didn’t get what she wanted OR what she needed, and nothing about the core conflict of the book (the Randall visions!) get resolved. As for Mickey… well, okay, I guess he got what he wanted. But Mickey is by far the less interesting character, and never really got any sort of character arc or development, so giving him an HEA doesn’t really do much for the reader.

[Fern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super bon livre, les descriptions sont fantastique. Si le genre de Speculative Fiction et d'apocalypse vous intéresse, je vous le recommande :)

[Pascal Scallon-Chouinard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ce roman avait une intrigue intéressante : une jeune fille, issue d’une famille où chaque membre entrevoit la fin du monde et en développe une certaine folie, se retrouve à Rivière-du-Loup à la fin des années 1980 et au début des années 1990, au moment où s’effondrent le mur de Berlin et l’Union soviétique. Elle y rencontre un jeune homme dont la famille œuvre dans le béton. S’ensuit une touchante histoire d’amitié et, on le suppose, d’amour, ponctuée de réflexions parfois loufoques, d’autres fois cyniques, sur les comportements humains et les crises qui affligent notre planète. Puis Hope, la jeune fille, amorce du jour au lendemain un périple qui la mènera de New York à Seattle et jusqu’à Tokyo, afin d’élucider le mystère de la fin du monde.

C’est précisément à ce moment que ce roman dérape. Alors que l’on commence tout juste à apprécier la relation et la complicité qui se développent au fil des pages, une coupure survient et on entre dans une suite de péripéties plus ou moins crédibles et pertinentes. En fait, tout semble se précipiter et s’accélérer jusqu’à la fin, laissant de nombreuses questions sans réponses et plusieurs personnages peu ou mal développés.

Le récit demeure malgré tout intéressant et on espère toujours en savoir un peu plus d’une page à l’autre. L’écriture est intelligente et certains dialogues sont savoureux. Mais, à terme, on reste sur sa faim, avec l’impression d’avoir été jusqu’au bout pour rien.

[Anne-Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

La plume de Nicolas Dickner m'a encore une fois charmée. Quel style! Ses histoires sont toujours excentriques et abracadabrantes avec un soupçon de "geek". Je ne sais pas trop pourquoi, mais ça me plaît bien. J'aurais bien aimé une fin différente, plus poétique peut-être mais j'ai bien aimé ma lecture.

[sarah t · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty enjoyable read with some really crazy characters that flit in and out of the story. Made me crave ramen like you wouldn't believe.

[mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable although the second half seemed to go slightly off-course. Brilliant characterisations.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Fun. Light. In a few years time I probably won't remember the details of the story, but for the moment I'm satisfied with the outcome.

[Christine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Self-consciously quirky, ugh.

[Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

(J'ai lu la version traduit en anglais. C'est excellent, puis j'ai trouvé du confort et d'humour dans les parties non traduits, par exemple le français un peu tordu du monsieur en Seattle ainsi que les phrases japonais)

Souvent je me dis « I should have seen this coming! » Cependant, peut-être les indices ont été intentionnellement subtils, mais je comprends la motivation des personnages et l'absurdité de l'intrigue.

Spoiler alert, read at your own risk, or preferably after reading the novel, thank you very much: Actually, the characters and themselves remind me of Stargirl with average Boy intrigued by Quirky Girl. However, the book contains a timeskip (and the narrative observations do mature, too) and despite the open conclusion, there's enough said where you know they definitely get to meet again and there's literally hope for a future between them (pun intended).

Comment on the two main protagonists:Michel sums up Hope's character perfectly:

I burst out laughing. Who but Hope could be so matter-of-fact in sprouting such fantastically outrageous comments?

Michel, on the other hand, is the guy who says things like: "What sort of comedy had I stumbled into?" or makes spot-on observations (I'm quoting his grown-up counterpart):

The situation was crystal clear: they planned to make us sweat before announcing the layoffs. The Romans had already used this sort of method in the galleys.

or even:

Single, no children - I had all the prerequisites to qualify for overtime work.

Actually, I didn't really know what to expect in terms of plot. That's what I meant when I said "I should have seen this coming!". It didn't occur to me that the ramen Captain Mofuku was quite possibly foreshadowing Hope's globetrotting adventure. I honestly though the whole novel would stay in place in Rivière-du-Loop, but considering how Ann Randall (whose personality change I also did not see coming) packed up and left Yarmouth with Hope, and considering the amount of money Hope saved up, it was a realistic (however unpredictable) decision for Hope to make. If that makes sense? It also fits in character with the Randall obsession and Hope's obsession with pursuing knowledge.

Also, it was interesting reading about historical events in the 80s, and I have this impression that despite my review being posted closer to the 2020s, nothing seemed so far-fetched or different. Such as, the cultural diversity in the small town (Laotian family and Vietnamese convenience store oh and turns out Michel's older brother is gay). I found amusement with Kamajii's commentary about "The Japanese read too many mangas" and

Finally, there are those who believe that it is simply one facet of nationalism - the vain belief that the apocalypse must begin on Japanese soil

which reminded me of X/1999, Volume 01: Prelude (the CLAMP series) and many mecha animes. Actually, I think there was an Akira, Vol. 1 reference, too.

I also was thrown off by one chapter, titled "Menu for Travellers" which is an ingredient list. I suspect it might be the ingredient list for ramen...? I must let you know that ramen often acts as a plot device (and motif).

Anyways, I actually thought it would end with the future uncertain, after their separation. Like Stargirl did. However, instead, we meet grown-up Michel, who occasionally remembers his first crush/love with a tinge of regret, but when he receives an open invitation in the mail from said girl (once the date passes), embarks on a journey to reunite...! (Might I add, as adults). With the ending on a light-hearted note, I feel very satisfied. Hmm... maybe the writer did allude to this when Michel was describing his search for Captain Mofuku:

I somehow felt nostalgic. Maybe it was just the desire to give the whole story a kind of closure with a familiar taste.

Talk about meta.

I didn't expect Hope's "end of the world" to translate to her metaphorical loss of innocence which Michel sums up as "no longer a medical mystery".

[Catheriine · Rating 4 out of 5]

À date, si je veux vous partager mon expérience des romans de Dickner, je vous dirais que je ne sais jamais où l'histoire s'en va, cela ne m'intéresse pas toujours, mais finalement j'embarque jusqu'à la fin. Pourquoi? J'en sais trop rien. Je crois que c'est l'originalité du parcours, car tout comme dans Six degrés de liberté, il s'agit d'une sorte de parcours ou de voyage improvisé à chaque fois, touchant plusieurs villes et aussi, plusieurs pays. Le style de cet écrivain est dur à décrire et résumer. C'est inusité, inattendu, mais sans éclat. On n'est pas tenu en haleine jusqu'à la fin, mais on veut poursuivre notre lecture quand même. Où tout cela nous mène-t-il? De plus, il faut se rappeler que le titre et la couverture ont toujours un rapport avec l'histoire, que l'on découvre au fur et à mesure.

Pour résumer un peu l'histoire, il s'agit de deux adolescents dont une jeune fille qui a comme don, tout comme le reste de sa famille, de prévoir ou du moins de savoir la date de la fin du monde. Est-ce vrai? Chaque membre de sa famille possède pourtant une date bien distincte. Cette obsession de la fin du monde est pour le moins inusitée, mais c'est parfaitement normal chez les Randall. Mais Hope Randall parcourra un long chemin en quête de sa vérité, jusqu'aux États-Unis et même, au Japon. Meilleur à mon avis que Six degrés de liberté, dans son originalité et la variété de ses anecdotes et bribes d'histoire.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

La idea del fin del mundo está más que trillada, pero este libro lo enfoca desde un perspectiva perturbadora y cómica a la vez. Perturbadora, por que la protagonista femenina, Hope, no hace nada más que presentar siniestros apocalipsis, con fundamentos de física cuántica por medio, algo que no resulta demasiado realista en una niña. Por otro lado, el autor intenta dotar de humor a la novela a través de la visión de la "peculiaridad" de la familia Randall, en especial de Ann Randall, madre de Hope. No se el resto, pero a mi no me hacen demasiada gracia las enfermedades mentales.
Lo que se lleva la palma es el viaje de Hope, fruto de una obsesión con una fecha que descubre por azar. Quizás, esta debería ser la parte más interesante de la novela, pero me ha parecido aburridísima. Sin mencionar el final, simplista, estúpido, pero probablemente lo único realista de la novela.
Es corta, y eso es sí es una ventaja, pero he de confesar que no volvería a leerla, ni la recomendaría a nadie.

[Bart Vanvaerenbergh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puber/jong-volwassene zijn in de jaren '80 : het was niet gemakkelijk.
Naast al die hormonen in overdrive dreigde ook nog elk moment een nucleaire oorlog. In de zoektocht naar jezelf kwam je anderen tegen die ineens een enorme invloed op je hadden. Radicale ideeën hingen constant in de lucht.
Dit boek katapulteerde me terug naar die tijd.
Michel wordt hopeloos verliefd op Hope. Ondertussen valt de Berlijnse muur en stuikt de Sovjet-Unie in mekaar. Het Midden-Oosten staat nog steeds op springen.
De familie Randall is een familie van voorspellers van het einde van de wereld.
En ook Hope krijgt ineens een datum "door" dank zij een pak instant noodles.
Een knotsgek, sympathiek, verontrustend en schattig boek voor iedereen die volop puberde in de jaren '80 van de vorige eeuw.

[Lois Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was introduced to this author when his book Nikolski was part of Canada Reads-- it too got a 5 star rating from me and won the national book fight.

I loved this book for many reasons-- the writing was simple but at times shocking and thought provoking. There was a playfulness to the main character's quest for an ending that I found endearing. And then there was a touch of magical realism in the Land of the Rising Sun -which given my recent visit --made me wistful for Tokyo. He even described, in jest, the exact situation I found myself in at one point in that journey--separated from my children by the closing of a commuter train door.

I hope to find more of Dickner's work in translation--he's my kind of guy.