After "The Two Lives of Baudoin", around illness and resilience, "It's not you that I expected", on the meaning of the handcap and "The Odyssey of Hakim" on the true story of a Syrian refugee, Fabien Toulmé returns with characters always endearing and carrying important messages.
"Suzette ou le grand amour" follows the adventure of two women: a grandmother, Suzette, and her little daughter …
When Suzette's husband dies, Lola regularly visits her grandmother to grieve collectively. The young woman, who has just moved in with her companion encounters difficulties in her relationship. She then asks her grandmother about her love story, and discovers that the ideal she had forged around the couple formed by her grandparents is not entirely true… Then, that Suzette met a man during her mission as an au pair in Italy.
A feminine road trip
Lola then sets out to bring her grandmother to Italy to find this mysterious lover. Suzette is finally not difficult to convince, as her granddaughter's appetite for life becomes contagious. The reader then follows the two women on their road trip, and discovers the Mediterranean landscapes through the simple and colorful drawings of the author. Sometimes full of energy, sometimes nostalgic, the tone is always filled with hope. The two women break many taboos around their sexuality, their condition as women, the problems encountered in their relationship. Finally, the fervor and ideals of the girl are tempered by the wisdom of Suzette, who in return (re)learns to dare without worrying about her age. Confidences move into life lessons, and each learns from each other.
The recipe for great love?
Finally, Suzette ou le grand amour shows us that love has no age, and that it requires as much madness as compromise. The quest for true love in both women also involves this complicit and family adventure, led by two independent women, recalling the importance of loving oneself and overcoming one's own barriers.
Fabien Toulmé, Suzette ou le grand amour, ed. Delcourt, coll. Mirages, published on June 2, 2021. 29€95
