Un jardin au bout du monde

by Gabrielle Roy

Un jardin au bout du monde est né de la vision que je saisis un jour, en passant, d’un jardin plein de fleurs à la limite des terres défrichées, et de la femme y travaillant, sous le vent, en fichu de tête, qui leva vers moi le visage pour me suivre d’un long regard perplexe et suppliant que je n’ai cessé de revoir et qui n’a cessé, pendant des années, jusqu’à ce que j’obtempère, de me demander ce que tous nous demandons peut-être au fond de notre silence : Raconte ma vie.
G.R.

Un jardin au bout du monde a été publié pour la première fois en 1975. L'œuvre a été traduite en anglais. Cette édition est accompagnée d’une chronologie de l’auteur et d’une bibliographie de la critique.

Genres: Short Stories, France, Fiction, Canada, Canadian Literature, Historical Fiction

178 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Gabrielle Roy was born in March 1909 in Saint-Boniface, Manitoba, the youngest of eleven children. Her mother and father, then, were relatively old at the time of her birth -- 42 and 59 respectively. Like Christine's father in Rue Deschambault (Street of Riches), Léon Roy worked as a colonisation officer for the Department of Immigration, a position he held between 1897 and 1915. His politically motivated dismissal occurred six months before his retirement, thus leaving Roy with no pension to support his family. The family's financial predicament during Gabrielle's youth precluded any chance of her attending university, despite having earned stellar marks throughout high school which put her as one of the top students in the entire province. In 1927, after graduating from grade twelve, she enrolled at the Winnipeg Normal Institute where she completed her teacher training.

After teaching in the rural communities of Marchand and Cardinal, where she taught for a year, Roy returned to Saint-Boniface. There she accepted a teaching job at the Académie Provencher boy's school, a position she held from 1930-37. During this period, Roy began actively pursuing her interest in acting and joined the Cercle Molière theatre troupe. Her experiences as an actor inspired her to leave her teaching position and travel to Europe to study drama. Spending between 1937 and 1939 in Britain and France, the fluently bilingual Roy studied acting for six months before concluding that she did not desire to pursue a career in the theatre. In the meantime, she had also begun to write articles about Canada for newspapers in Paris and pieces on Europe for newspapers in Manitoba and came to realize that writing could be her vocation.

Over the course of her lengthy and prolific career, Gabrielle Roy received many honours, including three Governor General's Awards (1947, 1957, 1978), the Prix Fémina (1947), the Companion of the Order of Canada (1967), the Medal of the Canada Council (1968), the Prix David (1971), and the Prix Molson (1978).

Reviews

[Soteralzobooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.3

[Maryse Champagne · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE

[Faye]

Gabrielle Roy is one of my favourite Canadian writers, but this was my first time reading one of her books in the original French. I'll hold off on rating it, because I need to return to it when I'm less distracted and don't have to read it quickly to get it back to the library. I enjoyed it, but I couldn't focus on it half the time, so I probably missed a lot.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little disappointed with this collection. I've heard so many amazing things about Gabrielle Roy, and I was excited to finally get around to reading some of her works. But the stories fell flat for me. The writing was good, the ideas were interesting, but I couldn't connect. The stories also felt just a little too similar to me; three out of the four stories are about immigrants trying to make themselves a home in the prairies, and the loneliness and desolation that faced them. I think it's fine to have an overarching theme to a collection of stories, but these started to feel a little repetitive to me. I think that's part of the reason that the first story, Tramp at the Door, was my favorite of the collection, but even that one wasn't particularly memorable or hardhitting for me.

I'll certainly give her novels a try, probably in the original French, but this wasn't a great first experience with her work.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow I got through the Canadian school system without reading a Gabrielle Roy book, so I decided it was time to rectify that.

This book of four short stories about transplanted immigrants living in the Canadian prairies was good, and I'm glad I picked it up, but I wasn't blown away. I think part of my problem lay in the telling of the story "Where Will You Go, Sam Lee Wong?" I know Roy wrote this story in a different time, and of a different time, but the awful racist slurs throughout the story really were hard to take. I think I visibly cringed while reading parts of it.

I plan to eventually read Roy's The Tin Flute seeing that it is probably her most well-known work, but I'll wait a bit before tackling it.

[Siyuan Liu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un jardin au bout du monde, malgré la présence de stéréotypes et de propos discriminatoires notamment dans l'histoire de Sam Lee Wong, reflète bien l'époque de Gabrielle Roy et les défis auxquels font face les immigrants. C'est un sujet que l'auteure connaît intimement, et elle exprime avec sensibilité la réalité de l'exclusion et de la solitude. L'histoire «Un vagabond frappe à notre porte» est particulièrement ingénieuse.

[Stefano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personally I enjoyed reading A Tramp at the Door, and Where Will You Go, Sam Lee Wong? These stories have interesting perspectives on how different settlers dealt with moving to the prairies.

I found the first one rather humours. The second one, inspiring for the hard work. The other two were meaningful, although I personally felt they were dry at points.

[Catherine Côté · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ces petites nouvelles ont chacune une histoire différente, mais elles se déroulent dans des lieux très semblables. Elles m’ont touchées et fait réfléchir sur ceux qui viennent de loin et qui choisissent de rester en ce pays, contre vents et sécheresses.

[Charlotte Côté-Hamel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[kati b · Rating 3 out of 5]

honestly it was a different adventure every section
very well written
but the third section confused me a bit

[Cora Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gabrielle Roy est une narratrice extraordinaire. On a l'impression d'être présent.

[Rachel Bergeron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lire du Gabrielle Roy, c’est un délice pour le cœur. Elle amalgame son amour pour le grand Canada et le petit quotidien des gens, avec douceur et humilité.

[El · Rating 3 out of 5]

I previously read Gabrielle Roy's first novel, The Tin Flute, and was blown away by her writing and her portrayal of a family living in Canadian poverty. Garden in the Wind is no less powerful. The book is made up of four different stories depicting four different people, all searching for their place in life, somewhere to call home. The characters are immigrants and vagabonds and they are, for all intents and purposes, strangers in a strange land. Not only do they want a place to call home, but they want to fulfill their dreams and truly make it their own.

Not as fabulous, in my opinion, as The Tin Flute - I enjoyed the complete novel of her first book as I felt she was able to stretch her writing skills to the limits. Garden in the Wind is comprised of essentially short stories, and I don't feel they represent her writing in the same way. I am, however, happy to have read it; next time, though, I think I'll search for another one of her full novels. I can appreciate a good vignette, but still love meeting fully fleshed-out characters.

[Darlene Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories about Canada, translated from the French.

[Pascale · Rating 3 out of 5]

3

Meh? J'ai aimé certaines nouvelles et certaines m'ont déçue.

[Ibis3]

NCL.2006-10-01