FRANCIS VOIGNIER

STORY OF A TALE-MAKER

A novel - 265 pages (Released June 15th 2019)

BUY ON AMAZON

"We stayed in le Quartier Latin for a week, a place buzzing with international students and leftists, where young mustached men playacted life in grand, refined gestures, while their “gypsied-out” dames danced in circles, their light, colourful skirts whirling in the sun, revealing the beauty of their curvaceous forms. Life was a stage, with every fountain a prop inviting an act of spontaneity. I wasn’t one to just stand by and watch. I danced and laughed with them. Chantal, in all her bubbliness, was the shyer of the two—Eastern French reserve, as she called it. I could go on and on about Paris, but there was more to France to be seen. Soon, we were on another train, onwards to connect with Straßburg where I would be studying for a degree in world diplomacy during the course the following three years. "

Janette Trudy Smyth on her first year abroad circa 1972

REVIEWS

• Voignier's writing reminded me a tad of Hermann Hesse and JD Salinger put together. The narrative is crisp, lyrical and charming. I haven't read a travelogue book like that in YEARS.... not since Shantaram. What a treat. Voignier blended a lot of different genres together into a book that is wholly original and unique. I can't say I've ever read anything like it. Highly recommend!

• How does one review a novel that draws you in so deeply that you lose track of your current reality?
  That’s what the author’s meticulous use of words does – so awesomely mesmerizing – it made me want to do nothing but keep on reading! The rhythm & content take you into the story’s intoxicating flow of time/space… a captivating written work I SO highly recommend!!

• I've never read anything quite like this book. It placed me into a calm state of mind, freeing me of everyday thought. So concentrating was I upon this descriptive prose that the visions it conjured in my mind inspired me to perhaps alter my own style of writing. It was a prose style reminiscent of Faulkner and Thoreau and just as captivating. Anyone in search of an intellectual read must set their mind to these pages.

• First time writing a serious book review for a commercial venue. Willingly did so this time, not only because of my transcendental connection with the main character ~ too long and too incredible to tell here, but because this, for me, and for anyone who is both curious and lucky enough to have a chance to read it, is a RARE FIND. While the story line seems simple enough, a brave Heroine's lifelong ~ very, very long at one dimension indeed ~ journey trying to create and maintain a righteous writing program to improve the well-being of two mingled realities, the true treasure that is scattered within the book's dream-like, misty pages and lines, is its Seth (a spririt famously chaneled by Jane Roberts) inspired belief that "characters develop into identities of their own."  So the reader is granted a feat to watch the Heroine float in and out of different times and spaces, free like a fish swimming among various bodies of water, and at the same time showcase how the tale (or fiction) is made for real. What is driving a picky reader like me to keep turning the pages is no longer the traditional love/hate plots and the lineage of human relationships, but the flow of Heroine's will, or her consciouness. It, in turn, creates such a refreshing experience that's worthy of every minute spent. In all, this is a very unusual book, and in my view, being categorized as Sci-fi is narrowing the scope of potential readers, as it ventures beyond the frontiers of Sci-fi, and lands well within the world of Spiritualism. A new  method of labeling should be considered...