Isabelle Fortier alias Nelly Arcan (1973-2009): writer and feminist

French Canadian writer died in Montreal on September 24, 2009. She had been found dead in her apartment of Plateau-Mont-Royal on St-Dominique Av in Montreal. Her French publisher had declared she had committed suicide. Even if the news had shocked the Quebec artistic community, Nelly Arcan was known, from her close friends and relatives, to have suicidal thoughts. In her novel Folle, Isabelle Fortier write about her will to commit suicide. According to her semi-autobiographic novel, Nelly Arcan tells that she had been suicidal since the young age of 15 years old.

In this French extract of Folle, Nelly Arcan explain that her aunt, a Fortune-Teller, try in many occasions to read tarot cards for her but each times, her aunt failed, as she couldn’t read the tarot cards. Her aunt couldn’t read Isabelle Fortier future:

“Quelque chose en moi n’a jamais été là. Je dis ça parce que ma tante n’a jamais pu voir mon futur dans ses tarots, elle n’a jamais pu me dire quoi que ce soit de mon avenir même quand j’étais une enfant non ravagée par la puberté. Je suppose que pour certains le futur ne commence jamais ou seulement passé un certain âge. Chaque fois que je me rendais chez elle les cartes ne lui disaient rien. Devant moi les cartes n’étaient que des cartes, ma présence avait pour effet de les démasquer. Par délicatesse ma tante ne me l’a jamais avoué mais je sais qu’elle pensait que face à moi ses perdaient leur troisième dimension, je sais que soudain elle ne voyait plus que la saleté du carton plastifié et le côté cliché des figures, elle ne voyait plus qu’un assemblage muet de lignes et de couleurs. Elle constatait leur taille et ne faisait plus la différence entre elles et le calendrier sur le mur, ses cartes et le calendrier ne lui donnaient plus qu’une information d’espace et de temps à laquelle rien ne pouvait être ajouté. Pour elle ce n’était pas ma vie qui perdait son sens mais la matière même de tous les futurs. Je sais aussi que mon existence la remettait en question, sans doute qu’elle déplorait que ses tarots ne sachent pas représenter le doute, l’inertie, ou le temps figé des gens qui attendent la mort.” (Nelly Arcan, Folle, Éditions du Seuil, 2004, p. 12-13).

This extract is disturbing because Folle had been published in 2004. Isabelle Fortier aunt couldn’t read tarot cards because Isabelle was suffering from depression. In recent events, the young novelist had committed suicide. Tarot cards couldn’t be read because of Isabelle Fortier life was going to be too short.

Beautiful and sophisticate, Isabelle Fortier was dealing with depression. She had tried to committed suicide in the pass. At a certain point of her life, friends of Isabelle Fortier, alias Nelly Arcan were afraid to leave her alone, knowing she was suffering from depression.

Nelly Arcan was one of the greatest Quebec writers of her generation. She was, we believe, 36 years old. In some documentation, we find the year of birth of 1976, and sometimes, 1973. Either way, Nelly Arcan was under 40 years old for sure. She was a young and talented writer.

Nelly Arcan is the author of 4 novels: Putain (2002), Folle (2004), L’enfant dans le miroir (2007), A Ciel Ouvert (2007). Her upcoming novel, Paradis clés en main was her latest novel and hasn’t been published yet.

Also, Nelly Arcan was currently working on a new Novel. She had submitted her project to her French publisher who had showed his interest with Nelly latest project. The novel would have been published in France at the Editions du Seuil (Paris). She was supposed to work at the novel by the end of 2009, and it would have been published in 2010. Sadly, only a few pages of the project had been written by Nelly Arcan so far. We will certainly hear more about this project in the upcoming weeks or months.

Her novel Putain, for which she had been honored by a nomination for the Prix Medicis and Prix Femina (2 of the most important French literature awards) had been translated in English under the title Whore. Her work had been translated in several languages, according to our search. Nelly Arcan life had been too shorted, but her name and work will remain. She’ll be remembering for the great author and thinker she was.

We personally feel powerless in front of this lost as we live in what use to be Nelly Arcan neighborhood. If only we would had known what was going on that day of September 24, 2009, we would had stop what we were doing at that specific time and we would had come and rescue her.

RIP Isabelle Fortier alias Nelly Arcan.