Product Description

'INTIMATE STRANGERS' OPENS A TIMELY WINDOW ON THE LITERATURE OF QUEBEC. FOR THIS ANTHOLOGY, MATT COHEN AND WAYNE GRADY HAVE SELECTED WORKS BY THE NEW GENERATION OF QUEBEC WRITERS AND HAVE AMASSED AN IMPRESSIVE RECORD OF THE DIVERSE RICHES OF THE CONTEMPORARY QUEBECOIS SHORT STORY. THROUGH THESE STORIES, WHICH ARE LACED WITH HUMOUR, ELEMENTS OF THE SUPERNATURAL URBAN PARANOIA, AND THE VAGRIES OF 'LIBERATED LOVE', THE READER IS INTRODUCED TO THE UNEXPECTED KALEIDOSCOPE OF THEMES AND STYLES. FROM LOUISE MAHEUX-FORCIER'S ELEGANTLY EXPERIMENTAL GEMS, TO VICTOR-LEVY BEAULIEU'S HILARIOUS MODERN SEND-UP OF A TRADITIONAL FOLKTALE AND FRANCOIS BARCELO'S WITTY SATIRE ABOUT THE COLLISION OF THE MALE UNCONSCIOUS WITH THE NEW FEMINISM, THESE HIGHLYIMAGINATIVE AND OFF-BEAT STORIES ARE SURE TO SURPRISE AND ENTERTAIN.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3957481 in Books
• Published on: 1987-05-05
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
This collection of recent French-Canadian short stories, most of which were translated by the editors, starts with a frappe de force: Monique Proulx's "Feint of Heart," which chronicles the love affair of Francoise and Benoit. They are 30ish, leftists, "misguided perfectionists who, in the name of Independence, complicate their lives beyond belief." When the two meet, they find bliss, but from the start they fear their mutual dependence and creeping "petit bourgeois happiness." Thus, on principle, they go out with other people and arbitrarily don't see each other for long periods, even though they become miserable as a result. The struggle between their hearts and minds continues for years and ends on a touching, fated note. Narrated in an appropriately mocking, jesting tone, this tale stands out above the rest of the stories in the collection. The others, including Jean-Yves Soucy's "Red Boots," a tale of a man's fatal obsession with shoes, and Diane-Monique Daviau's "Under the Bell Jar," about a woman who lives with a man absorbed in archaic subjects, seem pale and listless by comparison.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation)