Little Beast is a strange little novella translated from the French by Rhonda Mullins; intriguing and well written, but left me nonplussed. It's an odd story of rural Quebec in 1944, a young girl, and the wilderness.
Riviere-a-Pierre, at the foot of the mountains, is a quiet village only the river bothered with. An eleven year-old girl has lived her life with her mother, strictly taught to watch the world from behind the curtains. The windows stayed closed, the doors closed, even her mother's eyes when she looks at her.
For the girl has grown a beard.
Villagers pester the mother with questions - why is she not in school? why does she never the house? - finally breaking into the home to find out.
Weeks have gone by since the girl ran into the narrow hills of the Chic-Choc mountains and built a shelter of branches, burrs and lichen, far in the woods away from the long trail that leads to where the people are. She eats bark and whatever she can find; except for the trapped Hare she keeps as comfort, holding the dead body to her chest. Wind and animal howls slip under the door, but she is never scared.
After a storm destroys the hut, she sets everything alight and moves into a cave, before discovering two hunters camping out with a tamed bear on a lead. They know of the girl, and it will take some cunning to steal their food without getting caught. For if she is caught, they will cage her like an animal and return her to the dangers of the villagers, who think there is something wrong with a bearded little girl.
"You're not a monster, Mother used to say. Just a little beast."
This is literally a wild story; this girl is feral. Too realistic a story to be a fairy tale, yet too odd to be more than a fable. While the writing held my attention, I don't know the larger meaning of it. I was entertained, and as it is a short novella, I read it in one sitting. Demers cetainly paints a vivid picture of the wilderness and the level of survival needed, the remoteness of place at the time, eighty years ago.
The original French title is Barbe (Beard), which I prefer.
For those this story interests, you'll be entertained.
2018 / Tradeback / 125 pages
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