At the book fair in Rimouski, a woman picked up my first book to read
the back cover. She put it back down, avoiding my eyes. It's heavy,
cancer and death and all that. I wish books were more interactive. Like
video game controllers. They could vibrate at the end of each chapter.
But that's not how life works. I wonder what death is like. Do you
vibrate? Do the words GAME OVER appear?
In 2012, Vickie Gendreau was diagnosed with a brain tumour and wrote a
book narrating her own death. Testament could have been Gendreau's
first and only novel, but she kept writing, furiously, until the very
end.
Published posthumously after Gendreau's death in 2013 at age 24, Drama
Queens continues her exploration of illness and death that began in
Testament, but with even greater urgency and audacity. In her singular
voice, Gendreau mixes genres and forms, moving from art installations to
fantastical little films to poetry, returning again and again to a
deeply raw and unflinching narrative of her increasingly difficult days.
With rage, dark humour, and boundless spirit and imagination, Drama
Queens, translated by Aimee Wall, records the daily life of a young
woman living with a failing body, the end in sight, and still so much to
say.
Praise for Testament:
In addition to confronting her own imminent mortality, Gendreau takes
determined ownership of her legacy. --Quill and Quire
The journey through the end of Gendreau's life and beyond remains
delicate, introspective, and wholly unusual. It is a literary trip worth
taking. --Publishers Weekly
