In this novel, Hervé Jaouen with precision and realism portrayed the characters of his characters. He Fanch first, the son of Roz-Kelenn. Francis is a Breton of the earth, tough guy and work. A peasant existed as much, that the work was not afraid, but there have also used their health and that of their relatives. Fanch is a gruff, grumpy, stubborn and full of certainties. This is a man who knows how to look after his land and his animals, respecting the rhythms and seasons like his ancestors before him. But it is also a man who does not see the world change around him, who can not see the aspirations of his daughters, those of his wife. If Fanch is hard, Hervé Jaouen know we make it endearing because ultimately he is a man of another era continually challenged by the times in which he lives. He is someone who does not spare himself, who tries hard but does not know see what others expect of him.
The characters, they are also, and perhaps above all, women. Very present in Roz-Kelenn in the image of Jabel gozh, they are the strength of this novel. Head Women and character, they lead their world where they see fit. Within this society that has long characterized matriarchal, Fanch is struggling to find its place. Wars and the absence of men gave their authority. Mistresses in their homes, we see how men are absent from the novel. When they are there, they are never the central characters, and they are often weak characters. Only Fanch made against the weight.
Finally, as the story, the one that we had to appear as the villain intolerant patriarch gives the image of a man of character, certainly, but totally overwhelmed by the women around him: his mother first, but also his sister and her daughters. Only his wife seems helpless, still weakened by the disease. Conversely, women, described also with a strong character, but to be fair, generous, open-minded, appear both intransigent and harsh. Finally, the characters are neither all black nor all white, and it is this balance that makes the interest of this novel.
Beyond this magisterial lesson about human nature, we also discover the evolution of Britain, France and its campaigns together, with the arrival of all this "progress": the fridge telephone machine Washing, freezer, but also with European regulations, financial constraints and market pressures ... The life of the peasant will never be the same, the weight of tradition either. Through this novel, we also find the Church, the weight it had in the countryside and the pressure that his servants put on their flock.
This novel is a great wealth. It challenges us to each page to go back to our memory such and such anecdote told or lived with family. And to the turns of phrase and speak of the Breton countryside, if not the words themselves Breton. Everything is there! Even these countless Britons who left the country to go to Paris in order to work in administration, whether in the PTT or elsewhere.
