DARK ROUX
Dark Roux is the story of a family simmering on the verge of burning to ruin. The delicate nature of this sauce depicts how Cajun culture survives Americanization along parade routes and swamps in South Louisiana. The Mouton family approaches Mardi Gras 1999 expecting traditional joy and release. But teenage struggles with sexual orientation and independence, the ambiguity of young love complicated by the racism of the South, motherhood leaving little room to love one’s self (even when two non-family women are waiting to help), and blind ambition as a way to deal with the past, all plague the family. The lines tying them together become taut, threatening to fail and toss them into the hurricane of the future.
Fiction/ 978-1-956692-26-6/ August 9, 2022
Dark Roux is the story of a family simmering on the verge of burning to ruin. The delicate nature of this sauce depicts how Cajun culture survives Americanization along parade routes and swamps in South Louisiana. The Mouton family approaches Mardi Gras 1999 expecting traditional joy and release. But teenage struggles with sexual orientation and independence, the ambiguity of young love complicated by the racism of the South, motherhood leaving little room to love one’s self (even when two non-family women are waiting to help), and blind ambition as a way to deal with the past, all plague the family. The lines tying them together become taut, threatening to fail and toss them into the hurricane of the future.
Fiction/ 978-1-956692-26-6/ August 9, 2022
Dark Roux is the story of a family simmering on the verge of burning to ruin. The delicate nature of this sauce depicts how Cajun culture survives Americanization along parade routes and swamps in South Louisiana. The Mouton family approaches Mardi Gras 1999 expecting traditional joy and release. But teenage struggles with sexual orientation and independence, the ambiguity of young love complicated by the racism of the South, motherhood leaving little room to love one’s self (even when two non-family women are waiting to help), and blind ambition as a way to deal with the past, all plague the family. The lines tying them together become taut, threatening to fail and toss them into the hurricane of the future.
Fiction/ 978-1-956692-26-6/ August 9, 2022
Praise for DARK ROUX
The poet Billy Collins said family is the original insane asylum, where each inmate searches to find their own room. The disintegrating Mouton family constructed by author Toby LeBlanc and placed at the core of Dark Roux is custom made to prove Collins right. The novel is masterfully crafted in four parts, each part a first-person narrative from the members of the Mouton nuclear family: William (teenage son), Beatrice (distressed mother), Addie (rebellious twentyish daughter), and John (absentee father). Their individual struggles to “find their own rooms” is a clear reminder of why we read literary fiction; to see ourselves and our friends and family and enemies reflected back at us. Reflected unflinchingly with facades and masks removed. That’s how we get a glimpse at the scars and foibles that define us. Toby LeBlanc sets trouble in motion for the Mouton family, to be sure, but also provides another great reason to read: the insight gained into the unique and rich Cajun culture, a culture replete with original and unique language, food, music, and customs to be found nowhere else in America. In Cajun cooking, dark roux is used as a base for many dishes. LeBlanc has used it here to cook up a delicious novel.
— Jim Roberts
The book's depiction of the divide between certain public and private high schools, neighborhoods is fully accurate. It's always exciting to recognize the familiar Cajun/Creole bits and pieces of the French language as that's what it has sadly turned into. A great example of while Acadiana can be as stagnant as the swamp waters, there is just no place like it.
— Allyson Calloway
Toby takes the reader into a world of Cajun culture with characters that develop (or don't) over a period of time. His descriptions of Cajun culture make me wish I was from Louisiana. I haven't read a page turner like this since pre-COVID. Even though the book is set in the late 1990's and early 2000's the themes of the book are right on par with what is happening in America today.
—Micah Jackman
A vivid and compelling read, Dark Roux introduced me to evocative characters and a setting—Cajun country—that resonated deeply through artful description. LeBlanc really is a master of vivid description and detail. He makes the sounds, tastes, smells of place, and the complexity of characters and culture jump off the page. Wonderful book!
— Laurie Woodford, Unsettled
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About TOBY LEBLANC
Toby LeBlanc is a mental health therapist in Austin, TX. Writing is a way his own tales can have life alongside the countless stories of courage and strength of his clients. While he and his family sleep under the Texas stars, he will always say he's from Louisiana. He enjoys wearing period-specific pirate costumes and fishing. His dream is to one day do both at the same time.
