From Publishers Weekly
Albanie, a young divorcee, delights in her three-year-old daughter to the extent that she shuns adult company. She clings more and more tightly as she listens to news stories of earthquakes and wars or views newspaper pictures of homeless children. These topical insertions offer wonderful opportunities for imagery. After seeing pictures of Hurricane Hugo, for example: "It's raining. Maria is rebuilding the houses that have been destroyed." Albanie, the protagonist, writes in the first person, incorporating her own perceptions and the words of others as they're filtered through her. This brief novel thus comes so close to diary form that it's often difficult to remember it's fiction. The absence of immediate interaction and dialogue can become trying; sections that are sparse on imagery assume didactic qualities. However, Maria's precocity, which convinces when seen through her mother's eyes, might not be as believable if she spoke and acted on her own behalf. Depending upon the reader's preferences, this first novel by Turcotte, a young Quebecoise writer, will either be considered a rare poetic gem or become so frustrating that it's abandoned after 30 pages.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
French Canadian Albanie, a single mother of three-year-old Maria, is an intense observer of her own life among friends and at work in a library and of the tumultuous world events that take place in fall 1989. Mother and daughter are surrounded by pathos in their daily lives--there is little Felix, who lives across the street and is clearly the victim of gross neglect; Agnes, who spends every lonely day looking through picture books in the library; and their friend Jeanne, another single mother who is between relationships. At the same time, they bear witness to the grim televised images of Ethiopian famine victims, San Francisco earthquake survivors, and East European refugees on the move after the fall of the Berlin Wall. More than "the sound of living things," this poignant, seamlessly translated first novel is a vivid evocation of all the lonely, bruised souls who inhabit our universe. Highly recommended.
- Barbara Love, St. Lawrence Coll., Kingston, OntarioCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
