I was born in Gagnonville. You wouldn’t have heard of it. It’s not on any of the maps any more. They tore it all down in ’85 when the mine closed. That’s where my dad worked, at the mine. He was union rep. So when it closed down he got seriously depressed. Then again, it might have been finding the neighbour who hanged herself in the shed three days before they razed the town to the ground.
Je me souviens. I remember. The official motto of Quebec is right there on every license plate in the province, and it’s carved in stone over the door to the Parliament Building in Quebec City. It’s also the title of Martin Michaud’s latest detective novel, his third, featuring Montreal Detective Sergeant Victor Lessard.
“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” While the names of his three vessels—the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María—may ring familiar, the details of Columbus’s inaugural voyage don’t fit as neatly into the answer lines of history exams.
Antoine is an equal opportunity hater. To enjoy Variétés Delphi we must join him. “As we read we throw aside the trammels of civilization, the flimsy veil of humanity. ‘Off, you lendings!’”
Translating is never easy. What about revising a much-loved translation that has become a classic in its own right? Steven Urquhart describes the balancing act.
I read The Douglas Notebooks all at once. There was something so ephemeral, so whimsical, about this tale that it felt as though it might all disappear if I put the book down.
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