Although highlighted by a premeditated murder this is nevertheless the story of a people living a life without expectations during the Thirties, Forties and Fifties in urban ghettos of Montreal, condemned by circumstances to live a life of misery without history and future. Observed by a boy, caught up in the same poverty trap and wounded intellectually for a few years with a massive indoctrination program of servile obedience and enforced acceptance without question to a dogmatic belief system - in this case the French-Canadian medieval version of Roman Catholicism of olden days. In the end, it brings out a ray of hope by suggesting that, similar to the first group of entrepreneurs of the Beauce region - those original and inspiring 'can do' people of Quebec - a generalized underground movement has at last begun an original creativity and economic development, bypassing the previous limits of language, stifling religion, and the ideological self-imposed traditional barriers to entrepreneurship and business.

All of Jean Ovide Bourdeau's previous works were, among other things, attempts at answering the savagery implied in the demotion of women as a group - a crucial element of domination everywhere in the course of history in all cultures and ethnic groups to this day. This work although very different from all the others has been faithful to that same mission, purpose and objective. This novelized biography is a narrative demonstrating the singular callousness and cowardice within one dysfunctional family in particular and by extension within larger groups, as well as an attempt to highlight the wounding and crippling of a child's sense of self-worth and self-expression. Helen, the central character to this story, is an integral and admittedly small part of the worldwide savagery of which, the demotion of women has been a shameful, constituent and continuing part of our human history. Here then are the muffled cries of a child in extreme pain many years ago, now still suffering through severe panic attacks.

The author of this irreverent seminal work proposes that a self-righteous attitude of intolerance backed up by force has caused us as a species to plan and construct a Final Planetary Holocaust. He points to compulsive objectives by a group of dedicated people, which he refers to as 'Barbarians' gathered on purpose, to accomplish a self-assigned mission for the annihilation of the human phenomenon. This is serious stuff and obviously no bedtime reading for sure.
He submits that this planetary genocidal project is not only in progress but has now begun to accelerate toward its overall goal-insisting further that, we inexplicably continue to deny the existence of this scenario of malfeasance altogether despite the spectacle of horror, fright, cowardice, callousness, and violence, there for us all to witness.
A situation, he insists, is generally denied particularly by those of us, who as members of the Western Tradition are for the moment exceptionally located in that quieter area of the eye of the storm, so to speak. A spectacle nonetheless made blindingly obvious and which consists of famines, nuclear arsenals, environmental collapse, territorial and food wars, destruction of marginal nations, devastation of the ozone layer, unprovoked crimes, morbid existence, poverty, rapacious consumption of natural resources for unethical profit, genocides, tribal warfare, etc.
As if to make matters worst, he states that, all of this is carried out with our approval, simply because most of us refuse to be responsible and accountable for setting our personalized meanings, values and standards of thought and behavior in a cooperative pursuit of our bliss while respecting everyone'sInalienable Individual Rights at all times and regardless of circumstances.
Yet, he offers a scenario for hope based on sane and kind behavior, while accomplishing this in the pursuit of our individualized bliss.
The approach in this work resembles that of putting a puzzle without all of the parts-yet possessing a sufficient number of these in order to present a reasonable image of the message conveyed-in a sort of McLuhanesque manner. This helter-skelter style is tied together with several key words and concepts such as The Republic of the Barbarians, The Commonwealth of the Ings, The Ing Point, HID Syndrome, Article of Violence, Axioms of Dichotomies, etc.
A truly fresh and different way of observing our social, historical and political realities.