We're very excited about
Petty Theft, the latest book from all-around great guy
Pascal Girard (
Reunion, Nicolas, Bigfoot) published by Drawn & Quarterly!
Petty Theft is the English language version of
La Collectionneuse (also available in store.) In typical Pascal fashion, the story is gut-bustingly funny and achingly self-deprecating in equal measure, making for an excellent read. Nobody does this combo better than Pascal, as you will surely know if you've read any of his earlier works.
Full disclosure: one of the many reasons we love this book is the fact that it takes place right in our neighbourhood. In fact, a fictionalized Librairie Drawn & Quarterly is one of the featured locales, along with many other iconic Mile End fixtures! Anyone familiar with the neighbourhood will no doubt pick out plenty of landmarks in the pages of
Petty Theft.
In addition to all of the lovely renditions of Librairie D&Q, Petty Theft has many other merits. (We don't just love this book for purely narcissistic reasons, FYI!) The story starts out with our hero, Pascal, in a bad state - floundering
in the wake of his breakup with his partner of 9 years. Having lost his motivation to draw and not knowing what his future holds, he's
crashing with some friends while his small room slowly fills up with
boxes of books sent to him by his ex. To make matters worse, he throws
his back out, forcing him to give up running, his favourite coping
mechanism.
Though he denies harboring any lingering emotions regarding his breakup, he seems to read a suspicious amount of self-help books for a guy who's totally "over it." To his credit, it must be difficult to put the past in the past when you have to go to sleep every night with the knowing gaze of an oversize
papier mâché head of your ex fixed upon you! (The head is a remnant of Halloween costumes past that he can't bring himself to get rid of, evidently.)
The situation gets even bleaker when Pascal decides to go back to work as a sheet-metal welder, a trade for which he has little prowess, as evidenced by the fact that he's constantly injuring himself and invoking the wrath of his colleagues! But then one night, despite his reluctance to put pen to paper himself, he decides to attend a book launch at a certain local bookstore (can you guess which one?) where he witnesses a mysterious woman in the act of stealing his own book off the shelf! He is so intrigued by this turn of events that he goes into full detective mode, and plenty of awkward hilarity ensues. Who is this book thief, why did she steal his book, and could a new romance be brewing between she and Pascal? You'll have to find out for yourself when you read Petty Theft! It's a gooder, we promise!
