Last Update: February 2008

French: Jeanne la fileuse / Canuck
Russian: Сонечка Людмила Улицкая (Sonechka Ulitskaia, Ludmila)
Spanish: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

FRENCH

Jeanne la fileuse 1980
Beaugrand, Honoré
National Materials Development Center for French, Bedford NH

Canuck - 1980
Lessard-Bissonnette, Camille
National Materials Development Center for French, Bedford NH

Both books are available from The Franco-American Centre, 52 Concord Street, Manchester NH 03101, (603)669-1322, http://www.francoamericancentrenh.com
See English versions below

Pour ceux qui aimeraient partager la litérature francophone avec leurs étudiants, je vous recommande ces deux livres que plusieurs considèrent comme les meilleurs, sinon les plus importants, romans franco-américains écrits en français. Quoiqu’en elles-mêmes les deux histoires ne soient pas extraordinaires, du point de vue de l’histoire des immigrants québécois aux Etats-Unis dans les années 1840 à 1930, on apprend beaucoup du sort de ces gens qui ont quitté la ferme québécoise pour gagner leur fortune dans les filatures de la Nouvelle-Angleterre. D’ailleurs, la plupart sont venues avec l’intention de rentrer chez eux après quelques années.

Jeanne Girard, dite la fileuse, à l’âge de 16 ans se trouve à Fall River MA en 1873 avec la famille Dupuis après la mort de son père et le départ de son frère pour les chantiers du nord, et Victoria Labranche, 15 ans, s’installe à Lowell MA en 1900 avec sa famille pour échapper à la pauvreté de chez eux. Elles apprennent très vite que le paradis espéré n’existe pas là et qu’elles ont fui une vie dure pour en embrasser une autre aussi difficile. La ville est crottée, les "tenements" ne sont pas en bonne ordre, le travail commence à 6 heures du matin jusqu’à 6 heures du soir, pour un total de 60 heures par semaines. L’ambiance dans la filature est écrasante avec son bruit incessant et le travail continuel. On gagne très peu d’argent mais c’est tout de même mieux qu’on gagnait au Québec. Peu à peu on se fait une vie mais on quitte très rarement le milieu où l’on habite. La vie sociale, très peu qu’elle soit, se passe en compagnie de gens comme eux et on ne parle que le français.

Les deux livres sont divisés en deux parties: Jeanne la fileuse commence son histoire au Québec (chapitres I à XIV) et finit à Fall River (chapitres I à XI) tandis que Canuck commence à Lowell (chapitres 1 à 7) et finit au Québec (chapitres 8 à 12). Il est important de noter d’une part que l’histoire de l’immigration des Canadiens aux Etats-Unis occupe une place à part dans Jeanne la fileuse, l’auteur ayant inséré des chapitres isolés de son histoire pour nous faire apprendre les statistiques de ce phénomène, mais de l’autre part l’auteur de Canuck nous apprend cette histoire au fur et à mesure que le roman se déroule.

Le thème est le même dans les deux romans: c’est celui de la maturation de deux jeunes adolescentes qui ont mené une vie typique de paysanne québécoise, obéissantes, gênées, soumises, travailleuses, et religieuses pour devenir indépendantes et sûres d’elles-mêmes pendant l’espace d’un an (Jeanne) et de cinq ans (Vic). C’est le résultat de l’environnement où elles se trouvent qui est si loin de celui d’où elles sont venues. En effet Jeanne devient très brave à l’occasion de l’incendie qui tue son frère et détruit la filature où elle travaille. C’est aussi une histoire d’amour, de coeur brisé, de peine de séparation, et d’amour retrouvé. Malgré la vie dure qu’on a mené dans un pays étrange et, faut-il le dire, étrangé à leur culture, toutes les deux connaissent le bonheur, la paix, la fortune, et l’amour avec l’homme de leur choix au Québec. Ces romans aideront tous les professeurs de français à réaliser le désir des Foreign Languages National Standards qui nous encouragent à incorporer les Cultures, Connections, et Communities Strands dans nos cours.
- Recommended by Marcel LaVergne, Ed.D. French Book Review Editor

English version

For those teachers who would like to share francophone literature with their students, I recommend those two books considered by some to be the best, if not the most important, Franco-American novels written in French. Although the stories in themselves may not be extraordinary, from the point of view of the history of the French-Canadian immigration to the United States during the 1840 to 1930 years, one learns a great deal about those people who left the Quebecois farm to seek a better life in the mills of New England. Besides, most came with the intention of returning home after a few years. Jeanne Girard, called la fileuse, at the age of 16 finds herself in Fall river MA in 1873 with the Dupuis family after the death of her father and the departure of her brother for the lumber fields of the north, and Victoria Labranche, 15 years old, settles in Lowell Ma in 1900 with her family in order to escape the poverty of the home farm. Both women quickly learn that the hoped for paradise does not exist there and that they fled one hard life to embrace another one as difficult. The city is dirty, the tenements are in disrepair, and the work day goes from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm for a total of 60 hours a week. The mill atmosphere is crushing with its incessant noise and non-stop work. The pay is low but it is still better than that of Quebec. The social life, little as it is, takes place in the company of people like them and one speaks only French.

Both books are divided into two sections: Jeanne la fileuse begins in Quebec (chapters I to XIV) and finishes in Fall River (chapters I to XI) while Canuck begins in Lowell (chapters 1 to 7) and finishes in Quebec (chapters 8 to 12). It is important to note that on the one hand the history of the French-Canadian immigration to the United States occupies a separate place in Jeanne la fileuse because the author dedicated some chapters specific to that topic in his book but that on the other hand the author of Canuck informs us of the history as a part of the story itself.

Both novels share the same theme: the maturation of two teenagers who having led a typical peasant life in Quebec were obedient, shy, submissive, hard-working and religious and who became independent, self-confident, and self-sufficient all in the space of one year (Jeanne) and five years (Vic), due to the new environment in which they found themselves and which was so vastly different from the one they grew up in. In effect, Jeanne became very courageous on the occasion of the mill fire that killed her brother and destroyed the mill she worked in. Both novels also contain a love story, speak of broken hearts, of the pain of separation, and of refound love. In spite of the hard life that they spent in a foreign and also strange land, both women find happiness, peace of mind, riches, and the love of the man of their choice in Quebec. With the help of those novels, French teachers will satisfy the Culture, Connections, and Communities Strands of the Foreign Languages National Framework.
- Recommended by Marcel LaVergne, Ed.D. French Book Review Editor

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RUSSIAN

Сонечка Людмила Улицкая - 1992
See English version below

Имя Людмилы Улицкой довольно широко известно российскому читателю. Повесть «Сонечка» является дебютным произведением писательницы. В центре сюжета – судьба женщины по имени Сонечка. В более общем контексте, как и во многих других произведениях, Улицкая пишет о жизни советской интеллигенции. На протяжении повествования описана жизнь Сонечки, ее детство и ее любовь к книгам, работа в библиотеке, жизнь в эвакуации, замужество, рождение ребенка. Пристрастившись с детства к чтению, Сонечка долгое время живет в книжном, ненастоящем мире, пока судьба не посылает ей знакомство с необычным человеком, бывшим политическим заключенным художником Робертом Викторовичем, за которого Сонечка выходит замуж и не перестает удивляться и благодарить судьбу за эту встречу. На смену книгам приходят повседневные xлопоты, забота о муже и воспитание дочери. С благодарностью и любовью гораздо позже принимает Сонечка и появление в ее жизни девочки Яси, подруги ее дочери, которая становится последней любовью Роберта Викторовича... Эта трогательная история о том, как многогранны и непредсказуемы могут быть проявления любви, написана простым и искренним языком и она не оставит читателя равнодушным.
- Recommended by Oksana Prokhvacheva, Culture Club Russian Language Book Review Editor

Sonechka Ulitskaia, Ludmila - 1992

The name of Ludmila Ulitskaia is well known to Russian readers. The short novel "Sonechka" is the first literary work of this renowned writer. In the center of the plot is the life of а woman named Sonechka. In a more general context, this story as many Ulitskaia’s works is about the life of the Soviet intelligentsia. The book describes Sonechka’s life, her childhood and her love for reading, her work in the library, evacuation, marriage, birth of a child. Early infatuated by reading, Sonechka for a long time lives in a bookish, unrealistic world until she meets an unusual man, an ex political convict and artist Robert Viktorovich. They get married and Sonechka cannot stop thanking the fate for this gift. She starts living a "real" life with everyday problems taking care of her husband and her daughter. Later on she also thankfully accepts the appearance in her life of a young girl Yasia, her daughter’s friend, who becomes her husband’s last love. This touching story of how multifaceted and unpredictable love can be is written in a very simple and very sincere language and you will definitely be moved by it.
- Recommended by Oksana Prokhvacheva, Culture Club Russian Language Book Review Editor

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SPANISH

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao - 2007
Díaz, Junot
N.Y.: Riverhead Books
See English version below

Esta nube fatalista domina toda la novela, desde el título y la exposición preliminar del fukú, "the Curse and the Doom of the New World." El fukú se asocia sobre todo con la R.D. y específicamente con el dominio de Trujillo, el dictador cruel y duradero y, al mismo tiempo, "the Curse’s servant or its master, its agent or its principal, but it was clear he and it had an understanding, that them two was tight." Es evidente también que la manipulación adueñada del fukú de Trujillo aseguró una vida muy precaria para todos los domicanos. Así conocemos la historia de los padres de Oscar y Lola, de su abuelo, un doctor sobresaliente y apolítico que finalmente se encuentra víctima del poder absoluto y tentacular de Trujillo, resultado de un desconocido pecadillo que adquirió una dimensión extraordinaria. Después de su encarcelamiento, los otros miembros de la familia, con excepción de la bebé, que será la madre de nuestro héroe, perecen, por lo general bajo circunstancias sospechosas; y el doctor mismo muere después de ser torturado por los años que pasó en una carcel infame. El tema de ciencia ficción se extiende a través de la novela y sirve de metáfora para el mundo estrafalario, fatalista y fabuloso que rodea a Oscar, ya sea en los EEUU o en la R.D. Quizás sea su antídoto, su medio de escapar del mundo; pero así representa igualmente una cruz imaginaria que tiene que llevar. Aunque Oscar escriba constantemente, sus escritos se quedan amontonados, no consumados, y su sueños de publicar sus novelas nunca se realizan. No obstante, a pesar de su carácter torpe e incurable y su falta de confianza en sí mismo, este héroe desdichado tiene su encanto, y su vida logra una cierta recompensa si no una apoteosis. Además, Oscar tiene sus admiradores, sobre todo su hermana, Lola, la novia por cierto tiempo del narrador, Yunior. Ella es la mejor amiga y partidaria de Oscar a través de todas sus dificultades y, de hecho, logra ser otro héroe en la novela. Su historia contrasta de manera distinta con la de Oscar; al menos su físico y su personalidad son opuestas; ella es atractiva, sociable, y se siente segura de sí misma y cómoda en el mundo. Sin duda es la persona que, al final, triunfa sobre el fukú. Díaz teje una narración y hace descripciones elocuentes con la jerga callejera de los dominicanos. Crea un mundo animado y vivo salpicado de envalentonamiento, humor, crueldad e irreverencia.
- Recomendado por James Hassell, Culture Club, Editor y comentarista de libros en Español

English version

Oscar, the Dominican-American hero of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, grew up in the Dominican Republic and the U.S., like his author. He acquired his literary, Spanglified name from the costume he wore to an undergraduate Halloween party, and like his namesake, Oscar Wilde, he was an outcast, though of a different persuasion.

Oscar is irredeemably "a fat sci-fi-reading nerd," obsessed with sex. He enters his teenage years with all the obsessive titillation of any teenager and never shakes it; his fantasy of getting laid seems just that, a fantasy, doomed to failure. He is just too much the pariah: "Has none of the Higher Powers of your typical Dominican male, couldn’t have pulled a girl if his life depended on it. Couldn’t play sports for shit, or dominoes, was beyond uncoordinated, threw a ball like a girl. Had no knack for music or business or dance, no hustle, no rap, no G. And most damning of all: no looks." This sense of doom pervades the novel, beginning with its title and the introductory exposition of fukú, "the Curse and the Doom of the New World." Fukú is mostly associated with the D.R. and particularly with the reign of Trujillo, the enduring and cruel dictator as well as "the Curse’s servant or its master, its agent or its principal, but it was clear he and it had an understanding, that them two was tight."

It is also clear that Trujillo’s proprietary manipulation of fukú made life extremely precarious for all Dominicans. And so we come to learn of Oscar and Lola’s parentage, of their grandfather, a renowned, apolitical doctor who eventually falls victim to Trujillo’s tentacular, absolute powers, the result of some unknown peccadillo blown into majestic proportions. After his fall, the rest of the family, with the exception of the youngest daughter, our hero’s mother, perishes, most under very dubious circumstances; and the doctor himself dies after years of torture in one of Trujillo’s notorious prisons. The sci-fi theme pervades the entire book and serves as a grand metaphor for the zany, fatalistic, fabulous world that surrounds Oscar, whether in the U.S. or the D.R. It may also be his antidote, his source of escape from the world, but, as such, it is likewise a fanciful cross he must bear. Though Oscar writes incessantly, curiously his novels merely pile up, and his dream to publish them is never realized. Yet, in spite of his incurable nerdiness and general lack of self-assurance, this hapless hero is not unlikable, and his life does attain some recompense if not apotheosis. Oscar does have his admirers, especially his sister, Lola, the one-time girlfriend of the narrator, Yunior. She remains Oscar’s best friend and advocate throughout Oscar’s trials and, in fact, becomes a hero in her own right. Her story contrasts neatly with Oscar’s, as she is very much his opposite, at least physically and socially: outgoing, attractive, self-assured, and adept in the world. It is undoubtedly she who, in the end, may have outwitted the fukú.

Díaz intersperses eloquent narrative and description with the street talk of young Dominicans. He creates a lively and animated world full of bravado, humor, cruelty and irreverence. Oscar, el héroe dominicano-americano de The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, creció en la República Dominicana y en los EEUU, como su autor. Adquirió su apellido literario, castellanizado, por el disfraz que llevó a una fiesta de Halloween en la universidad. Y como su tocayo, Oscar Wilde, era un marginado, aún de carácter diferente. Oscar es categoricamente "a fat sci-fi-reading nerd," obsesionado con el sexo. Llega a la adolescencia impulsado por la excitación de cualquier persona de su edad y nunca la pierde; pero su deseo sexual queda únicamente a nivel de deseo, condenado al fracaso. Es un paria: "Has none of the Higher Powers of your typical Dominican male, couldn’t have pulled a girl if his life depended on it. Couldn’t play sports for shit, or dominoes, was beyond uncoordinated, threw a ball like a girl. Had no knack for music or business or dance, no hustle, no rap, no G. And most damning of all: no looks."
- Recommended by James Hassell, Culture Club Spanish Language Book Review Editor

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