Professional publishing for nearly thirty years, Jo-Ann Champagne shares her tips for exploring Quebec and Ontario, through literature.
Bookseller, editor, author, communicating… In thirty years, Jo-Ann Champagne has exercised all the trades of the book, for a long time in Quebec and for three years now in France, where she strives to promote quebec literature. This passionate words and the verb is also delegated to the national literary Prize of France-Quebec, in which the jury has announced the finalists for the year 2020. Three novels which will be decided next November : Waterfowl, Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba (XYZ), Your death to me, of David Goudreault (Stanké) and Kukum, Michel Jean (Freedom of Expression).
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In the meantime to know the winner, and to take advantage of the containment, Jo-Ann Champagne has agreed to deliver its blows of heart, for those who are preparing to leave Quebec, or the ones that just get there but can’t get out of the house. A nice way to understand the future/new country of adoption.
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The Gates of Quebec, the history to the height of a man
“For the French who emigrate to Quebec, the historical novels are a lovely way to immerse themselves in their adopted country. In this sense, the series in four volumes The doors of Québec(Hurtubise) written by the historian Jean-Pierre Charland, is remarkable. Of course, it’s fictionalized, but on the bottom you learn a lot about the history of Quebec and its concerns before, during, and after the First world war.
The Gates of Quebec, it is the saga of a family of merchants, the Picard and Buteau, which began in 1896 in the district of Saint-Roch at Quebec, and which extends over several decades. Characters with good character for some, too erased for others. A good overview of the daily life of québec society, of morals and of the power of the clergy on the francophone households through the destiny of two families closely related.
After the great success met by The Gates of Quebec, the author wrote, The clan Picard, a trilogy where we find the children of the Picard family after the Second world war. The series takes us into the 1960s, at the beginning of the quiet Revolution which marks the entry into a new era of freedom and modernization.”
Lovers day 2, roman quit
“I have a particular affection for that novel by Pierre Cayouette (Editions Druid), which takes us back to the Quebec effervescent of 1980s at the time of the first referendum on the sovereignty of the province. The main character is a child of the quiet Revolution, who grew up in the boredom of an eastern suburb of Montreal, neat and comfortable, with the tv switched on from morning to night, versatile (secondary schools) of concrete without window, shopping centres, all more ugly than the others, and convenience stores Perrette allowed to buy cigarettes and food very late in the evening. In this novel, it is the quest of the country which gives the character a sense of her eighteen years, on the eve of the first referendum on independence : it finally sees stirrings of this sovereign Québec of which he dreams in the feeding of the speech of René Lévesque, the poetry of Gaston Miron and the songs of Gilles Vigneault. He will discover self-renunciation, the pain of defeat but also the hope and the strength of friendships improbable.”
It was raining birds, the closer to nature
“In July 1916, in the north of Ontario is the victim of a terrible fire in which more than 200 people, including whole families, for the most part French Canadians. The fire ravaged more than 200,000 acres of forest. A human tragedy and ecological. This drama of canadian history is known as the “Great Fires” of Matheson. Even the birds were trapped. They died in full flight and fell as if it “was raining birds” : this is the starting point of the novelist, Jocelyne Saucier, who has signed this novel in XYZ.
It tells the story of a photographer who, in order to realize a work on the last witnesses still alive of the Great Fire, finds herself with three older men who withdrew from society to live at the bottom of a deep forest. Enamoured of liberty, these octogenarians, endearing, unusual, atypical, each live in a hut made of logs. But they have established a set of rules of life of their own, and stand together. This novel in which the nature, omnipresent, is described with poetry, is also a very beautiful love story between two beings aging, Charlie and Marie-Desneige. Against any waiting, they will love, because nothing is impossible, even when we live in the fourth age.
a powerful humanity, of infinite delicacy, this novel reminds us how freedom is precious.”
Paul, the extraordinary popularity of a regular guy
“If today I take pleasure to read a COMIC, it is thanks to Paul ! A series of Michel Rabagliati (Edition Watermelon) to be put in the pantheon of the comic, as it is universal and controlled. This is the kind of COMIC that you can read and reread, always having as much fun and emotions. Sûrement in part because the author tells the story in a certain way, his life with the greatest of sincerity. So that Paul is much more than a simple comic book character.
Paul, this is a gentleman All-the-World, a character who has nothing special about it, he lives a normal life and business mundane. This is not even an anti-hero. Paul, this is a bit of all of us in sum. The albums tell of his life, not linear (they do not follow the chronology of the life of Paul). This is without doubt where the feat of Michel Rabagliati, of we be passionate about and generate intense feelings, but never tell us extraordinary.
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It is strange to say, but reading this COMIC, it is as if I was in Quebec with my friend Paul. We accompany one another in our strengths and our weaknesses. There are many designs of Montreal and the reality of Quebec in this series, which is in its ninth book.”