Quebec writer wins Prix Renaudot
Quebec’s Dominique Fortier has won France’s prestigious Prix Renaudot for her book Les villes de papier. Fortier went to McGill, and the book is about American poet Emily Dickinson. The book is in French, of course, but this struck me as a good example of a successful writer working at the boundary of the two cultures and two languages – a boundary that may well be hardened in the academic world by new language laws expected next year.
PatrickC 14:25 on 2020-11-30 Permalink
The book may be excellent (I haven’t read it), but the award seems to confirm the argument, made by Stephen Henighan and others, that for a Canadian novel to get serious international attention, it has to be about a non-Canadian subject. Examples: Life of Pi, The Handmaid’s Tale, De Niro’s game. Alice Munro’s Nobel Prize would be the (big) exception that proves the rule. Or is that just nationalist grumbling?
Kate 21:21 on 2020-11-30 Permalink
Somehow I can’t blame people in England or France for not being gripped by Canada.
Kevin 00:01 on 2020-12-01 Permalink
And yet many Germans are bonkers for Canada and tales of the Mounties, Inuit, and more.
Kate 10:19 on 2020-12-01 Permalink
But are the Germans interested in serious literary fiction about those things, or adventure fantasies like the French thing about “le far west”?