«The deaf mountain»

Tuesday's books - Jonas Follonier

Gilbert Pingeon has published a simple yet deeply moving little book at the start of this year through Editions de l’Aire. The author, a resident of Auvernier, offers readers a story that expresses his love for one mountain in particular, its mountain, the Silent Mountain. And the back cover, through its tone, immediately reveals the solitary genius behind the narrator:

«I often hear people say, «The mountains belong to everyone.» That’s the kind of statement that’s sure to knock the wind out of you and kill your desire to hike. It’s enough, at any rate, to put you in a bad mood for the rest of the day.”.»

The book, however, does not put you in a bad mood. On the contrary, it is a haven of freedom, a peaceful and passionate respite for anyone with a sensitive soul. Not only because it tells a deeply rooted story—one that could take place nowhere else but at the foot of this mountain, in whose shadow the narrator grew up—but also because the mountain is steeped in symbols, all of which are already present in the opening pages. The first of these is the symbol of the novel itself—with all the inner conflict that is essential to it. This famous novel, a literary genre of modernity, that teeters between truth and falsehood, between reality and fiction.

«The Mountain is both fiction and reality.»

The thing is, the mountain—the narrative voice—speaks to her. That’s why she’s deaf. You can only be deaf if you could hear. This is the subtle insight of this lovely work—a truly literary work, rich in a style that has already proven itself. From the very first chapter, the mountain is also understood as the narrator’s lover, reflecting his own image back to him. Is the lover—the second metaphor for the mountain—in turn a symbol of the novel itself?

«Because we are, without a doubt, a couple. Not the most conventional or the best-matched, but who cares?”.
»Each person sees the other as both a dream and a mirror."

As you read, you find yourself wanting to quote everything, to put the entire novel in quotation marks, and to exclaim, as your only comment: «There you go!» That’s why I won’t go on rambling. There’s so much to say that it wouldn’t be fair to highlight some elements over others. This novel, it is The Deaf Mountain: It cannot be broken up; it is a single, solid mass. Being deaf, it will not hear what the self-proclaimed literary critics—myself included—have to say. And that’s just fine!

Write to the author: [email protected]

Photo credit: © Jonas Follonier for Le Regard Libre

Gilbert Pingeon
The deaf mountain
Editions de l’Aire
2019