Chaland Anthology #1: Freddy Lombard - Yves Chaland
This is the first Freddy Lombard book (I read the second already), and if anything it's even more confusing than the second. This one collects three stories: "The Will of Godfrey of Bouillon," "The Elephant Graveyard," and "The Comet of Carthage." Even from the beginning, we don't get any additional backstory about Freddy, Dina, and Sweep, although Freddy seems to be even more slapstick than in the later books. The trio appear to be just about homeless, drifting from one location to another and getting involved in whatever happens by.
"The Elephant Graveyard" is a little more straightforward, involving an expedition into Africa in search of a photographic plate of Dr. Livingston. The natives are a bit crudely stereotyped. There's a followup story involving the murders of some explorers which ends abruptly and oddly.
"The Comet of Carthage" is perhaps the most confusing: characters enter and exit without explanation, and it's very unclear how everything is tied together. There's a dead woman washed up on the beach, a mysterious sculptor, a wanted professor, and some doomsday comet.
I dunno, maybe it makes more sense in French. I think I've probably had my fill of Freddy Lombard.
Fed to jonathan's brain | July 20, 2006
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