C
anadian novelist Poulin’s edgy allegory finds Teddy Bear, a translator of newspaper comic strips, living in happy isolation on a remote island, with his cat, his reference books, internal dialogues with a possibly imaginary brother and the Prince, a robotic tennis opponent. When “the boss” who commissions Teddy’s work decides the cat must be lonely, the boss flies in on his helicopter a “lady cat” and black-eyed Marie. Felines and humans pair off, but their idyll is interrupted by the arrival of an eclectic parade of new residents introduced by the boss to make Teddy happy: the boss’s free-spirit wife, Featherhead; a French comic book scholar; a muttering Author; a practical Ordinary Man; and an Organizer who is sent to “sensitize the population.” As Teddy learns the true fate of his painstakingly wrought weekly translations and winter approaches, the earnest silliness turns dark. It’s as funny and fresh now as when it was first published (in French) in 1978. (June)
