Diary turned into a
novel
•L’Attente de
Paris (Waiting for Paris, Novel)
§Waiting for Paris is the fictionalized
traditional version of the Underground (A French-Canadian in Paris). The novel
is to the
third person singular and presents a young man fond of two women. Between
Ottawa, Paris and New York,
he has to make choices and to attempt to realize his dreams.
§Our hero lives only for Paris and will
finally be parachuted directly between the walls of the Sorbonne in Paris. However the cultural shock is very big.
The dreams are so simple, an ideal which did not suspect the obstacles and the bureaucracy of the governments and the
universities. But that builds beautiful stories, especially when emotion, irony and the sarcastic remarks
are on the menu. Waiting for Paris was written in an honest and direct style, it is the most accessible book of
the author. Only one level of interpretation (almost) and sometimes surprisingly funny. An instantaneous book
written before and after the departure of the author for Paris.
•Un Québécois
à Paris (A French Canadian in Paris) (Autobiographical)
§A French-Canadian in Paris (Underground)
is mostly the life of the author, but very amplified. It concerns a young student who finishes his studies at the
University of Ottawa and who dreams of Paris and New York. He will attempt to benefit from the social
security services after a summer job that proved disastrous, finally he will
find himself
in Paris continuing his studies. The interest of the book is in the style in
which it is written.
•General
Comments
§A French-Canadian in Paris created quite a
sensation in Paris when I was writing this 1000 pages book instead of working on my Masters degree at la
Sorbonne. I would go in Le Jardin du Luxembourg every day, panicking because I was not in class or studying,
then I would write for hours all my suffering and existential crisis. The whole House of Canadian Students where I
was living was reading bits and pieces of it on certain nights. My fellow students also took a great interest in it,
they even presented me to great publishers like Gallimard and Le Seuil which of course did not publish me. For
the first time I felt admired, I was considered like a real author and it was an incredible feeling. In Paris everyone
wants to write a book before they are 30 and soon realizes that it is quite difficult if not impossible. So they truly
admire someone who can write so many books. It was a dream come true even though I was far from being
published. It is also the time that I met the great author Anne Hébert, so
Paris was
magical.