Les portes tournantes

A quiet painter, separated from his wife for a year, receives a suitcase in the mail from his mother, whom he hasn't seen since infancy. He believes she abandoned him to his wealthy, paternal grandparents. The suitcase contains mementos and a diary, a long letter to him, written over the years, with details of her youth, her first job as a pianist at a cinema, the coming of talkies, her marriage, and how he came to live with his grandparents. As he reads through the materials and her story comes to life, his son Antoine, who's about 10 or 12, tries to break through his father's silence and sorrow by taking matters into his own hands. —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Blaudelle, who works as an artistic painter, is recently separated from his wife Lauda, a lighting technician. Their son, Antoine, lives with his father as Blaudelle, being a solitary and sullen man, needs him more than his mother does. Although he sees his mother often, Antoine records himself both playing the piano and telling stories as mementos for her. One day, Blaudelle receives a suitcase from his own mother, a woman named Céleste, who he never knew as his paternal grandparents were his guardians. Céleste is hoping to reconnect with him. The suitcase is full of her personal mementos, including a diary from her young womanhood. It chronicles her life as a movie theater pianist in Campbelltown, New Brunswick, her local celebrity because of the job, and her fall from professional grace with the advent of 'talkies'. It also outlines her relationship with her husband and her wealthy in-laws, which provides some insight into why Blaudelle is the man he is. And it mentions his real given name. After reading the diary, Blaudelle has no thoughts of seeing her. However, Antoine has other thoughts. —Huggo