Occasion – One Big Step toward God, Jean Vautrin

Whoever opens this great novel will travel to Louisiana, visit the Cajuns, and share the destiny of three generations. The story begins in 1893 and ends in 1920. We will meet Edius Raquin, the father, cunning, stubborn, the very example of those pioneering woodsmen who, in those times, did not hesitate to trust nature and God. Then Edius's future son-in-law will appear, the famous Farouche Ferraille Crowley, the man with slate eyes, the quick-drawing outlaw. Is that all? No, because Palestine Northwood, the sailor from Nantucket, a former harpooner, is also part of the party and the drama. To what extent? And why? That is the secret of this book where everyone, from Poitou, Ireland, Germany or Acadia, Creole Indian or Yankee, often a black cousin of slaves, speaks French to make their way in the world. It should also be known that we will meet Jim, Edius Raquin's grandson, and that the child discovered at the bottom of a New Orleans trash can will lead us, enchantingly, to the birth of ragtime and blues, of which he will become a symbol under the name of Jimmy Trompette.

It is with all these heroes, possessed by words and furies, that Jean Vautrin wrote his "adventurous" novel. The tumult is great. As vast as his love of life. As impressive as the literary achievement of this book.