Jacques PoulinRezensionen

I liked that a cat accompanied Jack and La Grande Sauterelle on their journey across North America, and I liked that the Indigenous narrative was brought to the fore to challenge the traditional colonial narrative. It has a sort of hipster vibe that might appeal to fans of Kerouac, but you do not by any means need to know or like him to find this book interesting.

I read the English translation by Sheila Fischman; normally I don't read French books in translation, but for Sheila Fischman I make an exception.

The English translation was a Canada Reads finalist in 2005, so I was surprised to learn that this book was first published in the mid-1980s! The Canada Reads thing threw off my sense of timing.

Une tendre tournée d’automne. Celle qui devait être la dernière pour le chauffeur du bibliobus dans le Nord du Québec. Une tournée où il rencontrera une bande de musiciens et artistes itinérants… Le début d’une autre histoire avec Marie qui les accompagne ?

Une tendre tournée un peu sirupeuse, toutefois. Un peu trop pour moi qui n’a pas tellement le goût du sucre dans mes lectures. Ou alors en accompagnement d’un récit avec plus de piquant, de nerf et d’épices.

A réserver pour les soirées mélancoliques ou les âmes amoureuses

What a lovely, gentle book of the passing of days with simple pleasures. I wanted to be riding along with the Driver.

In the beginning he was alone on the island.

Thus begins a short novel loosely based on Genesis. We never learn our Adam's name, but he says his codename is Teddy Bear, short for TDB or Traducteur de Bandes Dessinees (translator of comic strips). He is working in a newspaper office doing translations when a new boss drops in and wants to know what would make Teddy Bear happy. "Would you have a desert island by any chance", he asks. As it happens, the boss does and transports him to Ile Madame.

Teddy Bear seems content on the island as caretaker of the two empty houses and the small grounds. He has his cat, whose name is a play on Methusaleh, and an automatic tennis ball machine, named Prince. But the boss, who visits weekly via helicopter, is unconvinced. So he brings a young woman to live on the island with Teddy Bear, and then slowly a few others, as the Boss tries to create a happy society.

This is my second book by Jacques Poulin; the first being the wonderfully poetic short novel, Translation is a Love Affair. Spring Tides shares some themes with Translation, namely the translator's strive for perfection and the relationships between small groups of people. For me, the difference is that Spring Tides has more complexity and Translation more poetry. Spring Tides challenges the readers with fun allusions and word plays, and was well worth the second reading I felt it deserved. Warmly recommended, and I shall continue looking for books by Jacques Poulin.½

In this Quebecois novel, originally published in French in 1993 and recently reissued in English by Steerforth Press, an unnamed middle-aged man known only as “the Driver” travels in a bookmobile for the provincial Ministry of Culture. He has followed the same route every year through the remote villages along the St. Lawrence River’s “North Shore,” distributing books to the networks of readers that have been established there over time. This summer is to be different. Feeling the approach of old age, the Driver knows he hasn’t the psychological fortitude to cope with the inevitable decline of his body. This will be his last trip. The reader learns that he has brought with him a long flexible hose, which can reach from the back of his vehicle to the driver’s side window.

Before he is to leave Quebec City, he is drawn to the performance of a troupe of musicians, jugglers, and entertainers who have come from France to present at the annual summer festival held near the Chateau Frontenac, an iconic hotel overlooking the majestic St. Lawrence River. He meets Marie, a beautiful woman around his age. She’s the manager for the troupe and a kind of director, who always sits or stands in the front row where she can subtly signal the entrances and exits of the performers. The Driver and Marie have an immediate, almost spiritual connection. Marie has a boyfriend, Slim —an acrobat, tightrope walker, and juggler—but there are suggestions that things may be changing between the two of them.

Before returning to France the members of the troupe want to travel, see something of Quebec and perhaps a little of the States, too. They decide to buy an old bus, outfit it for their needs, and accompany the Driver on his route. Once they get going, Marie often travels in the bookmobile alongside her new friend. They have gentle talks about books and life. When not with Marie, the Driver attends to his book networks, collecting the volumes that were selected, read, and passed from one reader to the next in the chains of bibliophiles, and assisting people with their selection of new books for the months ahead. The Driver has read every book he carries, and he knows his readers well. One of the pleasures of Autumn Rounds was encountering names of writers and books I’d never before heard of. Unfortunately, many of the works of Quebecois writers, if they even make it to English-speaking Canada, are not widely known.

This is a delicate, intimate, and gentle novel about books, their ability to connect people, and the mysterious gifts of love and friendship we may be given when we least expect them. It’s lovely.

An older man, known only as The Driver, operates a bookmobile that makes periodic rounds to Quebec’s rural areas. One evening shortly before his summer tour, he encounters a musical troupe performing in Quebec City. He is enchanted by their devil-may-care approach to life, and they appreciate his devotion to literature and his bookmobile patrons. They decide to embark on tour together. They travel from one rural community to the next, with the troupe holding public performances to raise funds for the next leg of their journey. Sometimes the troupe and the bookmobile separate for a while, reuniting at a previously agreed destination.

The Driver is especially drawn to Marie, the troupe’s manager, finding every possible reason to talk to her or just sit quietly in her presence. He is shy, and Marie is enigmatic and reserved, and yet bonds begin to form. Over the course of the summer The Driver, who was initially thinking this would be his final bookmobile tour, shows signs of reconsidering.

This book is a travelogue of sorts, although I would have enjoyed this aspect more if I were already familiar with Quebec’s landscape. Absent that, it’s a slow, quiet character study about finding love later in life, and in the company of books at that. A very pleasant read.½

The writing was lovely as were the literary quotes and the relationships. The ending surprised and somewhat disppointed me. The ending also pleased me. The protagonist is a person worth knowing.

This charming and simple novel takes place in and around Québec City, and the primary character is an older man known as The Driver, who owns an old milk truck that he has converted to a bookmobile. During the autumn months he travels to nearby towns and hamlets, delivering books provided to him by the provincial government, and meeting old and new friends along the way. He enjoys what he does, but he lives alone in a fifth floor apartment, and loneliness is a constant companion that saps his life of satisfaction.

On one summery day he hears a band playing a marching tune, and he decides to go out and investigate this unusual occurrence. The music comes from a band accompanied by a troupe of jugglers, acrobats and singers from France, who are traveling from town to town. While there he meets the manager, a striking woman who resembles an older version of Katherine Hepburn in appearance and manner. The Driver and Marie immediately hit it off, and after spending time together she and the members of the troupe decide to rent an old bus and follow The Driver on his rounds to deliver books in the province, as they need to earn money to allow them to return to France.

The book is filled with rich descriptions of the Québec countryside, along with books and beloved singers of the past. The burgeoning love between The Driver and Marie is quite touching, and I was caught up in their relationship as if they were close friends of mine.

I’ve loved the two books I’ve read by Jacques Poulin, as he is a master storyteller whose books touch my heart. Autumn Rounds is right up there with Mister Blue and Translation Is a Love Affair, and it’s a novel that I’ll certainly read again in the near future.½

An interesting, touching short novel about an older writer and the young woman who translates his work.

On retrouve la plume tamisée et délicate de Poulin; les mots glissent doucement sur la page sans laisser beaucoup de trace. J'ai bien aimé l'hommage à la lecture et ce petit frère qui arrive enfin à se tailler une place ailleurs que dans l'ombre de son frère.
C'est une histoire agréable à lire mais qui ne restera pas longtemps dans ma mémoire - seulement le souffle d'une émotion tendre.

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Poulin-Volkswagen-Blues/22269

> Paru en 1984, Volkswagen blues rappelle le roman Sur la route de Jack Kerouac, abordant les thèmes du voyage et de l'américanité à travers les péripéties du personnage principal, Jack Waterman, un écrivain qui part de Gaspé à la recherche de son frère Théo, en compagnie d'une jeune métisse surnommée la Grande Sauterelle. le voyage l'amène à traverser l'Amérique jusqu'à San Francisco où il retrouve son frère qui se déplace en fauteuil roulant. Volkswagen blues est un roman d'errance où l'on croise les fantômes de quelques « clochards célestes ». Si l'Amérique s'est construite dans la violence, Jack et la Grande Sauterelle récusent cet héritage et aspirent à la paix. C'est aussi un roman d'amour émouvant et feutré, tout en retenue, où domine – comme dans la conquête de l'Ouest – la soif de liberté.
—ICI.Radio-Canada.ca

> Un livre n'est jamais complet en lui-même ; si on veut le comprendre, il faut le mettre en rapport avec d'autres livres, non seulement avec les livres du même auteur, mais aussi avec des livres écrits par d'autres personnes. Ce que l'on croit être un livre n'est la plupart du temps qu'une partie d'un autre livre plus vaste auquel plusieurs auteurs ont collaboré sans le savoir. (p. 169)

Teddy Bear is a translator of comic books for a newspaper. One day the boss asks TB what he would need to be happy. TB says he'd like to be alone on an island. Luckily the boss has an island and transports TB there to work in peace. TB is happy on the island with his numerous dictionaries and translation guides and the company of a feral cat he has managed to befriend. The boss becomes worried that TB is lonely. One day a young woman, Marie, and her cat are helicoptered onto the island (by the boss). Marie is just looking for a place in read in peace. The two introverts each live in one of the two inhabitable structures on the island. They are able to get their work and reading done without interruption and eat dinner together nightly. But the boss is still worried. He continues to bring people to the island: his wife,a professor, a comic book scholar, an author, an ordinary man and an organizer. The island becomes crowded and chaotic. TB gets no work done. But it doesn't matter because the last people sent to the island are there to inform TB of something that the boss has been unable to tell him. The comics that TB has translated have never been, and will never be, published in the newspaper. Since TB no longer has a job or a reason to be on the island, the others force him to swim away.
I always enjoy reading Poulin. This one left me going "what the...?" by the end. Highly recommended, although not nearly as good as Translation is a Love Affair.

Beaucoup de charme dans ce court roman... un moment d'existence, entre bizarrerie et banalité. Une très belle réussite.½

A surprisingly gentle, reflective, québecois road novel in which two slightly lost souls, assisted by an ancient VW camper van and a kitten, go on a quest to rediscover their real identities on a journey from the mouth of the St Lawrence River to San Francisco. Along the way they work themselves through a great deal of North American history (via the things they see and the "borrowed" library books they read to each other), looking both at the often-overlooked French voyageur tradition and at the fate of the Native Americans as Europeans moved into their lands. Neither story turns out to be quite as straightforward as we think it's going to be. Very enjoyable.½

Warning: this review contains spoilers.

****

An interesting story about Francis, a professional reader, and how his vocation is used to make a difference in others' lives. Francis is the brother of Jack, who is writing a novel about the French influence in North America, and Jack's novels are translated by Marine, who also appears in La traduction est une histoire d'amour. I found this a very quick read, with lots of good quotes about reading. I did think some bits were unnecessary, namely Francis's seeming sexual attraction to his sister...? I hope I was misunderstanding those passages, because ew. Nothing actually sexual happens, fortunately, but they were very strange thoughts to be having and I thought they detracted from the otherwise magical atmosphere of the story.½

(Fiction, Canadian, Quebecois, translated)

I’ve wanted to read this since Rock Carrier championed it in CBC’s Canada Reads in 2005.

Translated from French, VW Blues is the story of an impulsive road trip from Gaspe in Quebec to Las Vegas, Nevada to find the protagonist’s brother, with whom he has had no contact for 20 years.

I thought it dragged in spots although, in the end, everything tied together.

Read this: if you’ve thought about going off to find long-lost relatives. 3½ stars½

A delightful short tale about a novelist and his translator who find themselves involved in the life of a mysterious young girl who appears to be in trouble, through the intercession of a small black cat. If you crossed [Rear Window] with [Plainsong], dashed in a few drops of [Breakfast at Tiffany's], wrote it in French and then translated it into English, you might get something like this.
December, 2015½

Marine is a translator working and living on an island, where she translates for the Quebecois author, Monsieur Waterman. When a black cat suddenly comes into her life with a mysterious message on the collar, Marine decides to figure out where he came from and if she can help his former mistress.

At only 144 pages this slight, deceptively simple story could be read in an afternoon, but I guarantee you'll be thinking of it long after. It's an exploration of all sorts of human relationships, as well as language and finding just the right word for describing something. It's lush and lyrical (and it was an odd experience reading about translation in translation since it was originally French) and lovely. On a blurb in the back, Alberto Manguel describes it as "the essence of our human condition: giving and taking, teaching and learning, experiencing and sharing experience, a love affair with our fellow human beings." And I can't really say it better than that.

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A quietly affecting modern fairy tale told with humor and warmth, Translation is a Love Affair is a slender volume of immense humanity. A Quebecois novelist with a bad back and his vivacious translator discover a stray cat with an SOS attached to its collar. They embark upon a search for its owner, and when they discover a young girl with bandaged wrists they are drawn into a mystery they don't dare neglect. The world Poulin creates is haunted by dark memories, isolation, and tragedy, yet it is one in which languageand love are the most immediate and vital forces, where one human being hearing a cry of distress of another is compelled to shed one's own inhibitions to respond.

My Review: What a joy it is to discover such a famous novelist, he said with irony dripping onto his keyboard. In a properly order world, Poulin would be as well known in the US as in Canada, and just as justly celebrated.

This tale was a joy to read from "Naked as a trout, I was stepping out of the pond..." to the last spoilery paragraph. I finished it in a few hours, and read about half of it a second time. I am a sucker for stories of made families, as opposed to birth families; I love the idea of the love affair consummated by the intimate connection and tender caring actions of both people despite the long lifetime's difference in their ages. (Well, I would, wouldn't I, being a single mumble fiver now?)

After work he often called me to talk about this and that, or because he'd forgotten a word or the title of a book, or to ask me a question, such as: 'How can I keep brown rice from tasting like shrimp shells?'

Simple and direct, no ornamentation, a short passage sums up the flavor of a deep and cherished connection. That is fine philosophizing as well as deep thinking.½

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: By the Governor General Award and Quebec-Paris Prize-winning writer, a novel about a struggling writer and Mister Blue, his cat and sole companion until the day they discover a copy of The Arabian Nights in a cave along the beach. Tinged with melancholy, Mister Blue is at once playful, understated, and deeply human.

Jacques Poulin (1937-) is the author of twelve novels. Among his many honors are the 1978 Governor General’s Award, the 1990 and 2000 Molson Prize for the Arts, and the Gilles-Corbeil Prize in 2008. He lives in Québec City.

My Review: This book arrived in a surprise package from my sister, and we must be sharing some aetheric connection: Two days before I got the package, I was dithering between this Poulin title and Translation is a Love Affair to put in my Amazon cart for Money Day! Heh. Now I can read both!

'Books contain nothing, or almost nothing, that's important: everything is in the mind of the person reading them.'

If you were trying to find an idiotic remark, that one took the cake!

Thus speaks Jim, addressing an intimate audience, and self-talking his own, self-defined failure as a writer. You see, his (probably) imaginary love object won't show him her face, only leaving traces of herself in a riverside cave and a moored sailboat that slowly, steadily is repaired and painted and generally tarted up in the course of Jim's summer obsession.

By the end of the story, Jim's first novel-writing project has been abandoned, a love story that contains no lovers only friends. His second project, just begun as we leave the ramshackle house of Jim's youngest years, gains wind in its sails by his first, possibly first ever, emotional risk-taking act. It's not exactly a stunning shocking pearl-clutching shock, but it is amazing nonetheless. It is a pitch-perfect end to a beautiful chamber opera. I can't wait for the next one to arrive!½

Poulin, l'auteur des états d'âme et des sentiments. Poulin, tel son alter ego Jack Waterman (c'est un nom de plume), sillonne Québec et décrit ses façons d'être, ses postures mentales, son spleen ambiant et ses rencontres improbables dans des textes d'une simplicité poétique désarmante.

Le hasard placera sur la route de Waterman une jeune lectrice et de cette rencontre naîtront un échange, une conversation et même plus si affinités. Ce dialogue viendra bouleverser la routine de l'ermite et les deux exclus se nourriront de cette nouvelle affection. Douceur, tendresse et musiques du coeur, c'est tout cela qui joue dans le jukebox que nous présente Jacques Poulin.

[http://rivesderives.blogspot.ca/2015/05/un-jukebox-dans-la-tete-jacques-poulin.html]

Jacques Poulin, ce québécois de Quebec City, possède une écriture dont la simplicité cache la profondeur de la réflexion sur l'humain. Comme Pierre Morency (lui aussi de Québec), ce poète de la nature, aviaire notamment, il traduit en quelques mots et en prases toute simples des sentiments complexes, mais non tourmentés. Que ce soit dans Volkswagen Blues ou dans La tournée d'automne, Poulin réussit à décrire un amour ou une amitié qui se développe lentement, à la vitesse des saisons qui passent. On ne retrouve pas dans La traduction est une histoire d'amour les kilomètres et les mouvements, le voyage et la route, mais son écriture demeure poétique tant elle est dépouillée.

Les protagonistes de ce roman (monsieur Waterman, un écrivain solitaire, Marine, une traductrice et Limoilou, une adolescente délaissée) se retrouvent dans la plus récente livraison de Jacques Poulin, L'anglais n'est pas une langue magique que j'espère lire sous peu pour retrouver l'atmosphère qu'il sait si bien peindre.

[http://rivesderives.blogspot.ca/2009/04/la-traduction-est-une-histoire-damour.html]

Après La traduction est une histoire d'amour, Jacques Poulin récidive. C'est le petit frère de l'écrivain du livre précédent qui est maintenant à l'avant-scène. Il est lecteur. Il lira, entre autres, pour Limoilou, jeune fille dont l'âme est en convalescence. Le décor de cette tranche de vie, c'est la ville de Québec. Ce sont les pentes, les rues et les escaliers de Québec.

Ceux qui cherchent l'aventure et le suspense seront déçus. Ce n'est pas la recette de ce roman, de ce poème en prose, de cette fenêtre sur l'univers personnel de Francis, le lecteur et de son amour des histoires de l'Amérique d'un autre temps, un temps où les Indiens et le français occupaient le territoire.

[http://rivesderives.blogspot.ca/2009/12/langlais-nest-pas-une-langue-magique.html]

I understood that during my whole life I’d never really been in love. I’d only looked for affection. I’d done lots of things to make people like me, but I’d never loved anybody.

No surprise then, that Jim, a solitary, middle-aged writer living outside Quebec City, develops writer’s block while drafting a love story. But how he tries to work through that writer’s- and love-block is surprising, and mysterious, and I enjoyed this short novel.

Two years ago, I enjoyed another novella by Poulin, Translation Is a Love Affair, and thought often of it while reading this one. The familiarity seemed comforting at the time but, in retrospect, I’m growing disappointed by the frank similarity in characters, story, tone, style, structure and length. I’m interested (and wary) to get to his Spring Tides.

This tranquil book is like a fairytale-ish love poem to words, language and translation. Set in and near Quebec City the book features two main characters. Marine is a young translator, just starting her career. Monsieur Waterman is an older, well respected author. Marine would like to translate Monsieur Waterman's books into English. After a chance encounter in a cemetery, and a second meeting at the library where Marine shows Waterman her attempts at translating his work, the two become friends. Because of the deaths of loved ones and their personalities they both lead small, quiet lives that don't include other people. An abandoned cat that wanders into their lives leads them to a mysterious troubled young girl. The mystery is secondary to the lovely sections on books, language and translation. The real story lies in Marine and Monsieur Waterman's shared love of language. The book utilizes multiple quotes about language from writers and translators. (One of the quotes led me to the wonderful travel writing of Isabelle Eberardt)
I read the beautiful Archipelago Books edition. This book was my lunch time at work read. Normally my co-workers are not at all interested in what I'm reading or interested in books in general. Someone actually asked me what the book was about and a small group of us actually had a wonderful conversation about language, translation and about how a translator who was translating a book about language and translation had better be really good. It was great. Then the book was passed around - everyone loved the feel of the textured cover - and my co-workers actually wrote down the name of the book so that they could go get a copy. I hope at least one of them actually reads the book.
Highly recommended.