The End of the World is a taxi driver hangout that serves turkey dinners every day and where a group of regulars meets every Wednesday night to play cards. It is from this mundane restaurant that Hélène Rioux takes us all over the world, with people from all walks of life, on a snowy winter solstice night. The prolific and award-winning novelist and translator shows us the ways, however unlikely, in which her characters are connected.

On the surface, we could think of Wednesday as a collection of realistic, heartfelt short stories, until we notice the links, some very subtle.  This original technique in itself forms the intrigue. How could a Montreal taxi driver be related to the Conquistadors? Through Rioux’s easy flowing prose, we travel from various points in Montreal (a restaurant, a traffic jam, an apartment), to a motel on the US –Quebec border; St. Petersburg, Florida; Russia; a beach bar in the Dominican Republic; the Black Sea, Mexico, and Europe.

The cast of characters is just as eclectic as the settings: taxi drivers, a cook, a waitress, middle-aged women, lap dancers; the family of one, the boyfriend of another; the characters of a TV movie, its actors, the composer of its music and his assistant, the director and the principal character of an attempted remake. There are a  prostitute, Don Juan, the Conquistadors, a shoeshine boy, friends and daughters, and a translator. All have their own separate lives, yet are experiencing similar problems.  Their identities can sometimes be blurred by confusingly similar names or the use of multiple nicknames, aliases, and pseudonyms. Could one of the women playing cards be the actress in the movie?

Against this backdrop, visual arts provide some connecting threads in the form of colourful paintings and photographs; so do music, historical figures, and poetry. The main link is the movie Broken Wings. People are either watching it or they have been involved in making or remaking it. Broken Wings and its symbolism serve as a sort of mise en abîme, a story within the stories that share the same theme. Wednesday is a tale of betrayal, revenge, broken love, sometimes despair and death as part of ordinary lives: “the two women feel heartbreak; their eyes express all the despair in the world. No possible future for them,  no way out.” Fortunately, most of the narration has a more neutral, realistic tone.

It must not have been easy for Jonathan Kaplansky to translate this work, knowing that the author herself is an accomplished translator.  Kaplansky is faithful to Rioux’s simple everyday language. The title, however, is off.  “Au bout du monde” really means “at the ends of the earth,” not the second coming, as implied – but, strangely, it works.

Wednesday’s premise is to show that a network of links exists among these stories occurring all over the world.  With this clever interconnecting of many ordinary lives, Wednesday is a well put-together novel that examines the stark reality of life.  A good read for anyone interested in the complexity of the human nature.

Freelance writer Francine Diot-Layton’s love for good writing has led her to complete a Master’s degree in French literature (York University’s Glendon College). She is currently in the process of mastering the art of short story writing.