Many mRb readers will know Saguenay-born Pascal Girard from his five graphic novels, commencing with 2011’s Bigfoot and proceeding through 2021’s Rebecca and Lucie in the Case of the Missing Neighbor. Like nearly all of his work, the new Pastimes is autofiction. The current Pascal, we soon see, has arrived at a life stage where he appears to be getting a head start on grumpy old man status. A social worker by profession and cartoonist by vocation, Pascal is always getting into trouble by the simple expedient of giving voice to the thoughts that most of us, constrained by quaint notions of politeness and deference, keep to ourselves. But he’s also a family man with a heart of gold, and it’s the finely maintained balance between misanthropy and compassion that makes him such rewarding company throughout Pastimes.   

Girard’s touch is best demonstrated in his vignettes of family life, where a genuine tenderness emerges. He doesn’t mind fielding existential challenges from Lucie, his four-year-old daughter. “Dad, how come you have boobs even though you’re not a girl?” she asks. “Uh, I’m not sure how to answer that,” he answers, quite sensibly. Elsewhere, frustrated at Lucie’s inability to comprehend environmental peril, he muses, “Talking to her about death is one thing. But climate change… I’m just not ready.”

This diary-like book, drawn with the off-the-cuff freshness of a sketchbook and packing a profusion of belly laughs and emotional gut punches, is a gem.mRb