La femme du pilote : Le livre de Anita Shreve

Autrice que je ne connaissais pas et j ai été agréablement surprise. L écriture est prenante et fluide. On se laisse happée par l histoire de cette femme qui apprend le décès de son mari pilote de ligne. Et je ne m attendais pas du tout à ce dénouement. Par contre, il ne faut pas lire la 4ème de couverture qui devoile les 250 premières pages.

Un roman prenant sur une femme de pilote qui apprend que son mari est mort dans un crash, on suit ses premiers jours de deuil, puis sa réaction aux soupçons et enfin le dénouement final (que je terrai ici). Une écriture fluide, un personnage principal attachant (la femme du pilote), des flash-back permettant de mettre en perspective certaines situations et un dénouement final un peu attendu mais bienvenu… Un bon moment de lecture.

Ce roman date un peu.. 1998. Il fut sélectionné par l'Oprah's Book Club ce qui fit la notoriété de son auteure. C'est le premier livre d'Anita Shreve que je lis Il s'agit de l'histoire de Kathryn épouse de Jack Lyons, pilote de ligne qui se fait réveiller en pleine nuit par un représentant de la compagnie d'aviation venant lui annoncer la mort de son mari. Elle apprend alors que l'avion que pilotait son mari a explosé au large de l'Irlande du Nord, laissant peu d'espoir de trouver des survivants. Elle apprend par les médias qu'il s'est peut-être suicidé et tué tous les passagers… Et l'histoire alterne alors entre le passé et le présent, naviguant entre le Jack qu'a connu Kathryn et celui qu'elle découvre progressivement... L'aspect psychologique de la perte d'un être cher et de la reconstruction de sa vie après un tel désastre est profondément exploré. Il est très intéressant de voir comment Kathryn et sa fille adolescente Mattie traversent cette épreuve et chaque étape du deuil. Un vrai page-turner ! Je ne l'ai lâché que parce que nous étions invités chez des amis, sinon je l'aurais lu d'une traite tant l'envie de savoir était brulante. C'est bien écrit, les révélations s'enchainent jusqu'au bout, pas d'ennui. C'est un roman assez triste, mais sans pathos. Kathryn est un personnage intéressant. Il est question de vie de couple, deuil. de connaissance des autres... Connait-on vraiment ceux qui partagent notre vie ? J'ai adoré leur maison en Nouvelle-Angleterre, un ancien couvent des Soeurs de l'ordre de Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-la-Bienfaisance, au bord de la mer. Certainement un bouquin sans prétention, à traîner dans sa valise pour lire tranquillement sur la plage ou au bord de sa piscine. Si on aime les secrets de famille et les romans psychologiques.

The pilot’s wife was my first Anita Shreve novel … and definitely not the last one. What kind of book it is? To be honest, it is hard to define it: a mix of drama, suspense, love and emotions is the best description I can think of. When Kathryn Lyons is woken up in the middle of the night to be told that her husband died in a plane crash, her life is turned upside down. Especially when she learns by the media that he might have committed suicide and killed all of the passengers and staff present on board with him. With the help of Robert Hart, from the company, she decides to prove everybody that they are wrong and to find out who her husband really was, whatever it will cost her… And as the story unfolds, she realises that she did not actually know him at all. Anita Shreve’s novel is moving and its organisation successfully organised: one chapter out of two tells about the present and explains how Kathryn deals with the situation. The other chapters tell about the past and recount moments of her life with her husband Jack, from their marriage to the last time she saw him. As a consequence, the reader feels involved in Kathryn’s thoughts and discovers her memories little by little, as they come back to her mind. At the same time, and without the reader noticing it, the author prepares the spectacular end which is about to come. It is only towards the very end, after tension built up in the last chapters, that we fully understand the connection between all the anecdotes – although a basic general knowledge is required to catch all the details. The psychological aspect of the loss of someone dear and the rebuilding of one’s life after such a disaster is deeply explored, and subtly mixed with Kathryn’s investigation. The relationships between the characters are very interesting, in particular the ones Kathryn has with her daughter, Mattie and with Robert Hart. A fundamental question about relationships is thoroughly explored: how well can we know someone? There is no definite answer to that question, but several clues are given to the reader to make his own interpretation of the events and of the characters’ future. The pilot’s wife is a very good novel although the story is rather sad. There is the physical disaster – the crash – of course, but several other aspects are explored as well: the psychological disaster caused by the loss of someone dearly loved, the disaster that Kathryn discovers little by little which caused by lies and secrets, the disaster caused by the betrayal of someone important… It is extremely interesting to see how Kathryn and Mattie go through that ordeal and reach each step of grief. However, the evolution of Jack is interesting as well, as in most books dead characters do not really change. The memories and Kathryn’s investigation depict a character which changes nearly as quickly as you turn the pages. And in these moments of deep sorrow, the light of love never disappears. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes psychological novels, family secrets and mysteries. Although some of the scenes are heart-rending, the story is great and extremely well told, with the right words and the right amount of emotion.