Welcome to Litsy!

My #bookspin and #doublespin for January. One for #ReadCanada that I just found available on Hoopla and one from #MountTBR

Suzanne is an imagined biography of the author's grandmother who abandoned her own children when they were young. Using a file of letters and clippings she found in Suzanne's apartment after her death, Barbeau-Lavalette begins to reconstruct her life, and try to understand why she left, knowing her absence has shaped her as well. Like Suzanne, my paternal grandmother abandoned her young kids. I grew up fascinated and intrigued by this. 👇

I have really enjoyed reading this book! Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette tells a story of her grandmother, painter and poet Suzanne Meloche, who left her family and her children in a pursuit of the freedom.
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Un livre extraordinaire! Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette cherche les traces de sa grande-mère Suzanne en essayant de comprendre pourquoi elle a abandonné ses enfants.

#HappyCanadaDay
To celebrate Canada Day @KVanRead is hosting a Can Lit giveaway! One lucky winner will receive a Can Lit novel of their choice (based on online selection). To enter all you need to do is repost this pic and tag @KVanRead

The winner will be selected on July 4.
1. Tagged
2. Stéphane Dompierre
3. Mtl Smoked Meat ?

Consider yourself tagged, if you feel like playing ?

Thanks to @Lindy for posting this book ages ago. This is a fictionalized account of the author‘s grandmother, a woman who abandoned her two children, ages 1 & 3. The author hired a PI to learn more about this woman who so deeply damaged her children. The novel touches on so much: artistic freedom, a mother‘s duty, Canadian history, the Freedom Riders in the US, passion & emptiness. The story was beautifully told. 🔽

First day of summer for me! School finished yesterday and I‘m living it up. Almost done Suzanne, mostly because it‘s due in five days....and there goes my drink

Got notification from the library that this book was ready just as I was out the door to head home for the weekend.

I see that my two new books have a brown theme to them. Can‘t wait to dive in.

Can we talk about how perfect the cover art is for this book? A blurry, dreamy image of a woman amidst an ambiguous, fill-in-the-blank background. Spot on.

Finally catching up on #CanadaReads podcast...Yanic Truesdale on the themes of this book: “Resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

“Marcel and Jean-Paul have a mission. They have come to get tarps, the ones that cover cars that have just been unloaded on the docks.”
______

Artists who are now well-known started out stealing tarps made of jute canvas because they couldn‘t afford buying something to paint on. Marcel Barbeau became Suzanne‘s first husband. Photo is of Jean-Paul Riopelle, also mentioned in the passage above.

I‘m fascinated by stories about why women would abandon their children & this one has a whole lot more going for it besides that, including: a dive into 1930s & 40s Quebec history, politics & culture; a milieu of young artists working for social change; & astounding prose. The author‘s fictionalized account of her grandmother‘s story surprised me with its tenderness & depth of connection to a person who had caused such pain in her family. 💔❤️

Translator Rhonda Mullins (above, left): “Anaïs writes in very short sentences, which makes translation sound easy, but it's one of those every-word-counts scenarios.”

The writing style is one of the aspects I loved about this book, so I‘m grateful to the #translator. Example:

“My mother, broken-hearted. The shards of glass left forever under her skin, traces of the abandonment she carries like a coat of arms.”

(Internet photo)

Because I am made partly from your desertion. Your absence is part of me and it shaped me. You are the one to whom I owe the murky water that feeds my roots, which run deep.
So you continue to exist.
In my unquenchable thirst to love.
And in my need to be free, like an absolute necessity.

“Claudia found scales more musical than most pieces and played them one after the other with heartfelt enjoyment. She could have played only scales.”

Ha! That‘s how I felt when I took piano lessons at age 9 & 10. I practiced scales while vocalizing the notes. And I enjoyed learning music theory more than playing music.

(Image by Renoir)

We don‘t fall from the sky. We grow on our family tree. –Nancy Huston

Quebec has become a field of ruins. French Canadians have become a small people whose destiny is decided by others. —Paul-Emile Borduas

(Painting: Untitled by Paul-Emile Borduas)

You would like your words to singe the page too. You would like to have a book that lives on a shelf, somewhere, with your name on it, a book that is alive enough to upset people.

“Automatism was never figurative. Its world is the inner world. An outward projection of the inner world. Surrealism is based on a representation of the inner world, automatism on a nonrepresentation of the inner world.” -Claude Gauvreau

I‘m loving all of the art talk in this novel. (Image: detail from Pierre Gauvreau‘s Foire d‘empoigne)

People now say that the names of dead and buried children helped carry Maurice Duplessis to victory, artificially swelling the ranks of voters.
We know from a reliable source that the list of electors included the name of Octave Pion. Workhorse by trade.

(Internet photo)

You dive into the water after the rat, which you catch with both hands, holding it firmly, brandishing it like a trophy, your eyes sharp and your face like an animal‘s.
“Got it!”
Your sister Claire looks at you, impressed. You turn to face the English kids, the rat in hand, your dress dirty. You stare at them, a rebel.
You are four years old.
Mass is starting in five minutes.
You have mud in your underwear.

(Internet photo)

The author of this book never knew her maternal grandmother, Suzanne, who abandoned her children when they were young. After her death in 2009, Barbeau-Lavalette hired a private detective to learn more and with the knowledge she gained, she wrote a fictionalized account of her grandmother‘s life. Suzanne is written in second-person and in short vignettes, which I loved, but overall, it was just an okay read for me. #CanadaReads2019 #CanadaReads

I finished another puzzle while I streamed Canada Reads on the Halifax schedule. No spoilers for today‘s debate, but I‘ll say I‘m both disappointed with and unsurprised at yesterday‘s elimination. Goodbye, SUZANNE! I loved you so, so much, but I do get why you didn‘t resonate as strongly with the panel. #canadareads

I had BIG PLANS to eat my delicious lunch while I watched the first day of Canada Reads, but it turns out CBC doesn‘t put it up on Gem until later in the day (WHY) and I had trouble streaming it through their website. Boooooo. Guess I‘ll catch it tonight instead.

No spoilers, please, if you had better luck than me!

This was magnificent. As she fictionalizes her grandmother's life in a cascade of vignettes, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette reaches not only for answers as to why Suzanne abandoned her family but also for ways to love the woman. What a gorgeous, personal work.

I can see why opinions are divided, though. The book's in second person, and it isn't at all nice. Feel-good material this ain't, but compelling? Damn, is it ever. #CanadaReads #caseyplusbooks

SUZANNE is shaping up to be my favourite book of #CanadaReads. If this year goes the same as 2017 and 2018, that means it'll be voted off first.

Come on, SUZANNE! Break the cycle!

This chocolate is phenomenal. I got it at Dollar Tree, so y'all should check and see if your local store has any (unless you're allergic to anything in it, of course).

I live where I live! Every year it seems to get more expensive to raise our family here though... 😳 I read all through the day and usually get up before 6 to have a decaf and some book time to start the day 💙 Surprise me #friyayintro

Wow! I had such a busy month and still managed to read a lot. #insomnia for the win! #badcold for the assist!

HELL YEAH HUGE LIBRARY HAUL! I got lots of comics, the last #CanadaReads title I need, and a short story collection from the longlist. Y'all know I'm a sucker for linked stories.

I tried. And then I tried again. And again. I don‘t mind the second person narration. Or the snapshots of life. But I hate Suzanne. She is such a narcissist. I can‘t do narcissists. She reminds me of someone I don‘t care to remember. I just don‘t want to spend one more minute with her. So I‘m letting her go.
#CanadaReads2019

I'm not much of an app person (yeah, I know, I'm a weirdo), but I had trouble with my library's catalogue website last week so I finally caved and got their app. Now I'm kind of obsessed with how easy it is to check my holds and all that. Whee!

I'm excited SUZANNE is in transit now, too. It's the last #CanadaReads title I need. (I've got a digital copy of THE WOO-WOO but I kept my paper hold just in case.) Double whee!

I wish I had more facility with words so I could express how much I loved this book. Second person perspective when done this well is incomparable. Anais imagines into the void her grandmother left behind when she abandoned her babies in pursuit of art. So so good. #CanadaReads

I may have cancelled plans this evening for some #CanadaReads by the fire

Since the man who lovingly brings me coffee each morning has absconded with The Woo Woo, I‘m started my #CanadaReads journey with Suzanne. Has anyone read it? My $$ is on you @tournevis