Jean-Pierre Andrevon

The French writer Jean-Pierre Andrevon has been writing SF and other stories since the 1960s. Simply go to, for example, NooSFere to see his bibliography. Not only novels, but also and not in the least short stories. Not knowing where to begin, I did put two works on my wish list, just in case: 'La Maison qui glissait' and 'Les Retombées'.

One of the recent reissues of his works is the novel 'Le Monde Enfin' (roughly translatable as 'The world at last'), originally based on a same-titled novella from 1975, but expanded into a novel (of some sorts) in 2006. Éditions ActuSF reissued it a few months ago, though as an "augmented" edition, resulting in a thick brick of 715 pages. It's not specified what has been added, though I read somewhere that four (new?) short stories were added. Hence the "of sorts", as the novel consists of related and unrelated short stories, all taking place in the same world and context.

Each story has its own title, relating the story of one or more characters. Preceding each of these stories are the travels of a old, French horseman, who's doing his own "tour de France" to see the sea once more before taking the stairway to heaven. And he will take the stairway at some point, though in sad circumstances, if I may say/write so.

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We're a few decades from our current era, and a pandemic has struck earth's population, a virus by the name of PISCRA. There are barely a handful survivors here and there. The focus of the stories lies mainly on France and a bit of the USA. What a coincidence with our current era (Coronavirus, COVID-19). While the majority of the book dates from many years ago, some stories were influenced by our current pandemic, if I read that correctly.

As it goes when the number of people decreases drastically, nature reclaims its place. Machines, buildings, roads, ... all start to deteriorate, disintegrate, become overgrown. Here and there, one or a handful survivors try to make the best of it, try to rebuild their lives from scratch, even if no new children are born, because of the virus. In other cases, like that of a few children who've lost their parents, their curiosity is tickled. They decide to set the animals in the zoo in Paris free: elephants, apes, rhinos, zebras, ... become the new inhabitants of Paris and why not, other portions of France.

These children, together with and thanks to a scientist, will stick together for a while, until each goes his/her own way. 'Le Monde enfin' covers several decades, so you can see a few characters grow up, becoming teenager or adult and paths crossing again. And our travelling horseman also ages, of course.

With the whole world being reset, in a manner of speaking, what can you do, except try to survive with what's left of stocked food or what nature has to offer (fruit trees, for example)? One girl, for instance, lived hidden in the cellars of a supermarket. She didn't get the chance to go to school, kept asking her mother questions about what she saw in magazines and books. However, with no electricity, heating, fuel, or other means, the only source of light were flash lights or candles. Batteries were scarce and so were candles. In the end, to have a bit of warmth and not realising the educational value of books, these were burned to have a little fire and warmth. When you live such a life of hardship and abstinence, who are your closest friends? Exactly, rodents like rats, big rats. That's when, in true Mowgli-style, this little girl will become the Princess of the rats, especially as she also offered food to her new "friends". The rats remained loyal or, if you look at it differently, defended their territory from a pregnant wolf, which has sought a safe home for her cubs. This girl will have an important role to play in the rebuilding of human society.

And what about a space mission that in the end didn't take off? Its astronauts were put to sleep to wake up so many years later. They slept for the whole 45 years. Of course, as it goes with old technology, it ceases to function, communication with earth is no longer possible. All systems are out of order. As the mission didn't take place, the small crew decides to head back home, though in a manual way, steering the ship like one drives a car, hoping for the best. That's when they would find out the truth. Unfortunately, not all would survive their return to or on earth.

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'Le Monde enfin' offers one vision of what our world could look like if mankind ever had to admit defeat and nature took over again, as it has done several times. The writing may be dense, but each story (including the horseman's) is described in detail and contains several cultural and political references (artists, buildings, politicians, ... of the current or bygone eras). The detail, as I wrote above, is also evident in the description of the places/cities/streets/... It's almost as if you're watching a film. And let it be noted that Mr Andrevon is passionate about the human body, male or female. But mainly the female one. One just can't ignore that aspect during the read.

'Le Monde enfin' is not only about a pandemic and the world given back to nature, but also about people's behaviour under such extreme conditions, when all structure falls apart/away. Where to find food other than canned or processed food? How to grow food, under the current circumstances? How to remain or become human again?

Mr Andrevon painted a future where nature becomes more prominent again - something that is needed in our current times -, but took it to the extreme. Nature has taught and continues to teach mankind a serious lesson (like most recently the floods in Belgium, Germany, France, ...) about life, the world, survival, resources, ecology, globalisation, ... The original novella was pertinent several decades ago, this book is pertinent today and for years to come.

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I was sent this book by Éditions ActuSF for review. Many thanks to them for the trust.… (mais)