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Charles le téméraire #1
Charles the Bold
Possibly the greatest novel published in Canada in 2004 — the first in a historic series.
It’s as if Dickens or Balzac — or Rohinton Mistry — had decided to write the book that summed up life in east-end Montreal. This is the first volume of a quartet that has taken Quebec by storm, selling over forty-five thousand copies.
On the very first page, we meet Charles Thibodeau being born. It’s 1966 and the rest of Montreal is more excited by the fact that a new subway system is opening, but his birth is a big event for Charles’s parents and for their working-class neighbours.
Sadly, Charles’s mother dies when he is four, her funeral interrupted by War Measures Act soldiers on the streets. Soon young Charles, like a younger Huck Finn, is fending for himself. While he adopts a stray dog, Boff, in turn he is taken away from his drunken, violent father and becomes part of the Fafard family nearby.
His adventures follow thick and fast — at school, where he avoids becoming a teacher’s pet, despite being smart, in a part-time job where he encounters a pederast, and at summer camp, where he establishes himself as a rebel. By the end of the book, he has fully earned his title, Charles the Bold, leaving us eager to follow his further adventures.
But the real hero of this book is Montreal, and its scores of memorable, lively characters who leap off the page. Like Gabrielle Roy in The Tin Flute , Yves Beauchemin has given us an unforgettable portrait of life in the francophone east end — with more to come in this ambitious and richly rewarding saga.
It’s as if Dickens or Balzac — or Rohinton Mistry — had decided to write the book that summed up life in east-end Montreal. This is the first volume of a quartet that has taken Quebec by storm, selling over forty-five thousand copies.
On the very first page, we meet Charles Thibodeau being born. It’s 1966 and the rest of Montreal is more excited by the fact that a new subway system is opening, but his birth is a big event for Charles’s parents and for their working-class neighbours.
Sadly, Charles’s mother dies when he is four, her funeral interrupted by War Measures Act soldiers on the streets. Soon young Charles, like a younger Huck Finn, is fending for himself. While he adopts a stray dog, Boff, in turn he is taken away from his drunken, violent father and becomes part of the Fafard family nearby.
His adventures follow thick and fast — at school, where he avoids becoming a teacher’s pet, despite being smart, in a part-time job where he encounters a pederast, and at summer camp, where he establishes himself as a rebel. By the end of the book, he has fully earned his title, Charles the Bold, leaving us eager to follow his further adventures.
But the real hero of this book is Montreal, and its scores of memorable, lively characters who leap off the page. Like Gabrielle Roy in The Tin Flute , Yves Beauchemin has given us an unforgettable portrait of life in the francophone east end — with more to come in this ambitious and richly rewarding saga.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published June 9, 2005
5 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 13, 2025
Belle lecture ! Le mot qui me vient en tête pour qualifier l’écriture de Beauchemin est « sympathique ». La trame qu’il tissé est vivante, évolue constamment et le personnage est absolument attachant. Il est génial sans être stéréotypé ni parfait, chose que j’apprécie énormément dans une oeuvre.
March 6, 2025
🇨🇦After years of lingering on my TBR list so happy to have read book 1. Books 2 and 3 to follow with an intermission before they are started.
May 23, 2014
A round of applause to the translator, and my admiration to the author. I shall try to read his work in French, just for practice. Great storyteller!
January 24, 2024
C'est un gros livre dans lequel on parcourt la vie de Charles, de sa naissance à son adolescence. Je ne me suis ennuyée à AUCUN moment. Wow!
Le petit Charles est tellement attachant, mais aussi tous ces autres personnages qui l'entourent. L'auteur a réussit à les faire vivre à mes yeux, j'ai hâte de les retrouver dans les tomes suivants!
Le petit Charles est tellement attachant, mais aussi tous ces autres personnages qui l'entourent. L'auteur a réussit à les faire vivre à mes yeux, j'ai hâte de les retrouver dans les tomes suivants!
December 30, 2017
One of my 5 star books. Read it a second time in order to proceed to book 2 in the series. Beautiful language, excellent 3d characters that get you emotionally involved and the setting is paliable and so real. Dipped into the politics of the time. Highly recommend.
January 1, 2022
Un livre, premier d'une trilogie, que je relis régulièrement. On y suit la vie de Charles, né fin 60 à Montréal. On y suit la politique du pays au travers des yeux d'un petit garçon, un livre que j'aime beaucoup, qui donne à rêver et à revivre son enfance.
January 17, 2023
Didn’t finish after reading 1/3
August 10, 2012
'A lot of serious praying on his behalf had gone on by the time Charles finally poked his glistening head from between the thighs of his mother."
From the beginning of Quebec writer Yves Beauchemin's new novel, you know you're in good hands.
Originally published in Quebec in 2004, Charles the Bold is the tale of charismatic Charles Thibodeau, and his adventures growing up in Montreal.
Beauchemin's many previous novels have garnered him awards, such as the Prix France-Québec and the Prix Jean Giono, and comparisons to Dickens.
It's well-earned in Charles the Bold. The wealth of secondary characters and perennially bleak life Charles struggles with evoke Great Expectations -- albeit with the smell of the Macdonald's tobacco plant and a dash of poutine.
Charles is bereft of his mother at three and his shiftless father, Wilfrid, picks up a local waitress without missing a beat. It's the beginning of a long slide of neglect and eventually abuse as Wilfrid discovers he's not cut out to raise a boy.
Charles, on the other hand, wins over children, adults and stray dogs with ease, getting away with nearly everything -- except pleasing his father.
The disintegration of his family plays out against the background of Quebec life in the 1960s and '70s -- the funeral of Charles's mother is disrupted by Canadian soldiers during the October Crisis.
Charles is not without allies, even when his father visits cruel and arbitrary punishments on him. His loyal dog Boff, his rough-and-ready friend Henri, and the eccentric notary public Parfait Michaud take his side.
His foes include local pederast Monsieur Saint-Amour; the pompous and vindictive Brother Beaucage; and schoolyard bully Fats Dubé.
Beauchemin lets the reader into the heads of his memorable characters long enough to add other perspectives, without distracting from the main plot.
His humour shows in his descriptions, such as that of Grade 2 teacher Madame Cotruche: "she was married, the mother of three children and had the maternal instincts of a telephone pole."
Charles himself has to grow up more quickly than his friends. His father quickly becomes a threat to his (and his dog's) well-being, so he runs away, steals, and plots an independent life at 10.
Even when delivered from his damaged home, he carries the damage with him -- mistrustful, ashamed and angry. His well-meaning friends can't help Charles with what is eating away at him.
Still, as Dickens managed to find humour and small victories in the poverty-ridden streets of London, Beauchemin finds them in a Quebec plagued by uncertainty and some truly vicious grown-ups.
Charles concocts various schemes for "revenge" that sometimes backfire, but always blow up in grand style.
The sequel to Charles the Bold was published in Quebec last year. If it lives up to the promise of the first volume, Beauchemin should secure his place as one of Canada's best storytellers.
David Jón Fuller is managing editor of Lögberg-Heimskringla, the Icelandic community newspaper.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 1, 2006
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/hist...
From the beginning of Quebec writer Yves Beauchemin's new novel, you know you're in good hands.
Originally published in Quebec in 2004, Charles the Bold is the tale of charismatic Charles Thibodeau, and his adventures growing up in Montreal.
Beauchemin's many previous novels have garnered him awards, such as the Prix France-Québec and the Prix Jean Giono, and comparisons to Dickens.
It's well-earned in Charles the Bold. The wealth of secondary characters and perennially bleak life Charles struggles with evoke Great Expectations -- albeit with the smell of the Macdonald's tobacco plant and a dash of poutine.
Charles is bereft of his mother at three and his shiftless father, Wilfrid, picks up a local waitress without missing a beat. It's the beginning of a long slide of neglect and eventually abuse as Wilfrid discovers he's not cut out to raise a boy.
Charles, on the other hand, wins over children, adults and stray dogs with ease, getting away with nearly everything -- except pleasing his father.
The disintegration of his family plays out against the background of Quebec life in the 1960s and '70s -- the funeral of Charles's mother is disrupted by Canadian soldiers during the October Crisis.
Charles is not without allies, even when his father visits cruel and arbitrary punishments on him. His loyal dog Boff, his rough-and-ready friend Henri, and the eccentric notary public Parfait Michaud take his side.
His foes include local pederast Monsieur Saint-Amour; the pompous and vindictive Brother Beaucage; and schoolyard bully Fats Dubé.
Beauchemin lets the reader into the heads of his memorable characters long enough to add other perspectives, without distracting from the main plot.
His humour shows in his descriptions, such as that of Grade 2 teacher Madame Cotruche: "she was married, the mother of three children and had the maternal instincts of a telephone pole."
Charles himself has to grow up more quickly than his friends. His father quickly becomes a threat to his (and his dog's) well-being, so he runs away, steals, and plots an independent life at 10.
Even when delivered from his damaged home, he carries the damage with him -- mistrustful, ashamed and angry. His well-meaning friends can't help Charles with what is eating away at him.
Still, as Dickens managed to find humour and small victories in the poverty-ridden streets of London, Beauchemin finds them in a Quebec plagued by uncertainty and some truly vicious grown-ups.
Charles concocts various schemes for "revenge" that sometimes backfire, but always blow up in grand style.
The sequel to Charles the Bold was published in Quebec last year. If it lives up to the promise of the first volume, Beauchemin should secure his place as one of Canada's best storytellers.
David Jón Fuller is managing editor of Lögberg-Heimskringla, the Icelandic community newspaper.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 1, 2006
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/hist...
January 29, 2013
I really enjoyed this book of Charles growing up - his early life. The generosity of neighbours and strangers was so important to his success. The book was very readable.
I went on to read: A Very Bold Leap by Yves Beauchemin translated by Wayne Grady but once again have huge problems finding it on Goodreads. It is the last of the trilogy. This one I read in French. It took me longer but was once again enjoyable. Beauchemin has an easy writing style that is descriptive without being too much. I was sorry to leave Charles in his twenties, I wanted to know more of his life!
I went on to read: A Very Bold Leap by Yves Beauchemin translated by Wayne Grady but once again have huge problems finding it on Goodreads. It is the last of the trilogy. This one I read in French. It took me longer but was once again enjoyable. Beauchemin has an easy writing style that is descriptive without being too much. I was sorry to leave Charles in his twenties, I wanted to know more of his life!
April 3, 2008
please visit my links to read my review:
Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/3yryzd (please vote if your so inclined)
My blog:
http://teddyrose.blogspot.com/2008/03...
Amazon.ca:
http://tinyurl.com/3yryzd (please vote if your so inclined)
My blog:
http://teddyrose.blogspot.com/2008/03...
October 20, 2009
The story of a young boy growing up in Montreal in the 1970's. While I found the story somewhat simple and a little improbable (everything always turns out alright for Charles in the end) it is an interesting perspective on Montreal and a French Canadian author to discover.
April 14, 2016
Red the English Version Charles the Bold: the dog years Book one
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews