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Rue Deschambault
1980, French Edition, Paperback, 303 pages
303 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1955
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358 people want to read
About the author
Gabrielle Roy
55 books114 followersGabrielle 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).
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).
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January 22, 2025
During the winter of 1964 this book Captivated me! I read it in French, in a high school course taught by Merivale's Jean-Guy Nault.
I can only surmise that Mr Nault was teased to no end by my more suave student buddies, who read Ian Fleming's Doctor No with a flashlight after lights out.
But the book, at any rate, perfectly pinpointed my happy/sad mood that year as school Head Boy - selected and not elected.
Dad was on a two year's sabbatical - far, far away in the American midwest. I was adrift without him. The previous year, my Mom had tried to cheer me up by sending me to music camp in Vermont - I played, and hated tuba - but I had become Tubby the Tuba in Dad's absence, overdoing the sweets.
Christine in the book is adrift when her Dad is gone long periods, as a train conductor. Me - well, Mom compensated by spoiling me. Didn't work, I had lost my sense of humour: and our Camp Counsellor treated us like kids (what an embarrassment, going to the beach on a scavenger hunt for a Sky Hook)!
Christine's coming-of-age retreat within herself was, alas, my own. Shame easily hits its mark in unwary teens. We're only young once, thank Heaven...
But my polyphiloprogenitive peers - ie. The Counsellor - just snickered!
I was so uncool.
One snowy winter's day while reading this I went skiing at our nearby Carlington Park, and in those Neanderthal days it wasn't even graced by a rope tow. I kept falling on my way down.
I would turn beet red and trudge wearily uphill, now an easy target for more speedy downhill teen tyros. But one time, I was helped up.
By a girl my age. She awkwardly pointed the grip-end of her ski pole at me, after I thanked her for her offer effusively. I got up and looked at her.
A plain gal to more sophisticated guys perhaps, but to me she was my dear moody Christine from Street of Riches!
When the sun started to set than day, I invited her to our school's Junior Prom, and she accepted awkwardly (if she could get permission)...
It turned out to be a disaster.
The other young bucks raised their eyebrows. The daintier debutantes distanced themselves from us.
Merivale was a great high school, but it was built for upwardly mobile families. My "Christine" was obviously of another class - for she was too tall - and gangly and skinny. Her appearance was not a priority for her, and I was much the same.
Plainly an outsider, like me! No-no's in such august company.
Faux Pas, Fergus...
Tch, tch!
But Gabrielle Roy's poor real Depression-era Christine couldn't have cared less:
She was PROUD of her poor French Dad, and the poor black CPR porters he called his friends. Christine's Dad didn't need money - he had a secure job in the Dirty Thirties.
And he always had the loyal, warm love of his family waiting for him at the Saint Boniface station.
He even invited his black co-workers into their circle - this is nearly a hundred years ago, and people talked more then that now - but he didn't mind.
We're all the same beneath the skin, he thinks!
So Christine grows up surrounded by affection. But remember, this is a coming of age novel, so her teen years are imbued with a deep blue tinge of sadness.
And talk tends to scuttle our leaky boats…
So we all grow up. Fast.
Just as I too, alas, was woken up the night I brought an awkward outsider into the company of the elite at our Merivale High School Junior Prom!
I can only surmise that Mr Nault was teased to no end by my more suave student buddies, who read Ian Fleming's Doctor No with a flashlight after lights out.
But the book, at any rate, perfectly pinpointed my happy/sad mood that year as school Head Boy - selected and not elected.
Dad was on a two year's sabbatical - far, far away in the American midwest. I was adrift without him. The previous year, my Mom had tried to cheer me up by sending me to music camp in Vermont - I played, and hated tuba - but I had become Tubby the Tuba in Dad's absence, overdoing the sweets.
Christine in the book is adrift when her Dad is gone long periods, as a train conductor. Me - well, Mom compensated by spoiling me. Didn't work, I had lost my sense of humour: and our Camp Counsellor treated us like kids (what an embarrassment, going to the beach on a scavenger hunt for a Sky Hook)!
Christine's coming-of-age retreat within herself was, alas, my own. Shame easily hits its mark in unwary teens. We're only young once, thank Heaven...
But my polyphiloprogenitive peers - ie. The Counsellor - just snickered!
I was so uncool.
One snowy winter's day while reading this I went skiing at our nearby Carlington Park, and in those Neanderthal days it wasn't even graced by a rope tow. I kept falling on my way down.
I would turn beet red and trudge wearily uphill, now an easy target for more speedy downhill teen tyros. But one time, I was helped up.
By a girl my age. She awkwardly pointed the grip-end of her ski pole at me, after I thanked her for her offer effusively. I got up and looked at her.
A plain gal to more sophisticated guys perhaps, but to me she was my dear moody Christine from Street of Riches!
When the sun started to set than day, I invited her to our school's Junior Prom, and she accepted awkwardly (if she could get permission)...
It turned out to be a disaster.
The other young bucks raised their eyebrows. The daintier debutantes distanced themselves from us.
Merivale was a great high school, but it was built for upwardly mobile families. My "Christine" was obviously of another class - for she was too tall - and gangly and skinny. Her appearance was not a priority for her, and I was much the same.
Plainly an outsider, like me! No-no's in such august company.
Faux Pas, Fergus...
Tch, tch!
But Gabrielle Roy's poor real Depression-era Christine couldn't have cared less:
She was PROUD of her poor French Dad, and the poor black CPR porters he called his friends. Christine's Dad didn't need money - he had a secure job in the Dirty Thirties.
And he always had the loyal, warm love of his family waiting for him at the Saint Boniface station.
He even invited his black co-workers into their circle - this is nearly a hundred years ago, and people talked more then that now - but he didn't mind.
We're all the same beneath the skin, he thinks!
So Christine grows up surrounded by affection. But remember, this is a coming of age novel, so her teen years are imbued with a deep blue tinge of sadness.
And talk tends to scuttle our leaky boats…
So we all grow up. Fast.
Just as I too, alas, was woken up the night I brought an awkward outsider into the company of the elite at our Merivale High School Junior Prom!
July 16, 2017
This book is just as wonderful on the second reading as on the first. Gabrielle Roy is a great writer.
March 24, 2015
It's no wonder that Roy is such a favourite author for Canadians, francophone and anglophone alike. Back to her home in more than one sense after the not so enjoyable The Cashier, Roy offers each of these stories as a little gift, tied up with a yellow ribbon, from Christine to you. Look deeper and there's all this stuff going on: immigration and multiculturalism, feminism, religion, art, aging, existentialism, and winter.
December 31, 2019
I found this book in a Little Free Library a couple blocks from my house and it was a lucky find. It's evocative collection of interconnected stories that take the narrator Christine, a girl growing up in a French-speaking family in Manitoba in the 1920s, from a small child to a teenager working at her first job as teacher in a rural one-room schoolhouse.
The book paints a portrait not only of a person, but of her large family and a multicultural community consisting of immigrants from various European communities, plus a couple of African-American railway employees. (In that it reminds me of Willa Cather's prairie novels that take place just a bit earlier and south of the U.S/Canada border.) There are two stories that takes place outside of Christine's little corner of the world. In "To Prevent a Marriage," Christine and her mother travel to Saskatchewan to try to talk her older sister out of getting married. And in "The Gaddabouts," Christine's mother, leaving without her husband's knowledge or permission, takes her on a month-long trip to Quebec, where they meet many relatives and old friends, and learn their stories. Christine's early exposure to immigrants and these trips may foreshadow the wider world she's just on the cusp of entering as she takes her first steps into adulthood at the end of the book. But it's clear she will remain deeply influenced by her childhood and the place she calls home.
Snug in the schoolhouse during a winter storm she thinks:
But we-- all of us together-- were warm and happy. The two little ones recited their lessons. Right next to us the gale, like a misunderstood child, wept and stamped its feet outside the door. And I did not fully realize it yet-- often our joys are slow in coming home to us-- but I was living through one of the rarest happiness of my life. Was not all the world a child? Were we not at the day's morning?
The book paints a portrait not only of a person, but of her large family and a multicultural community consisting of immigrants from various European communities, plus a couple of African-American railway employees. (In that it reminds me of Willa Cather's prairie novels that take place just a bit earlier and south of the U.S/Canada border.) There are two stories that takes place outside of Christine's little corner of the world. In "To Prevent a Marriage," Christine and her mother travel to Saskatchewan to try to talk her older sister out of getting married. And in "The Gaddabouts," Christine's mother, leaving without her husband's knowledge or permission, takes her on a month-long trip to Quebec, where they meet many relatives and old friends, and learn their stories. Christine's early exposure to immigrants and these trips may foreshadow the wider world she's just on the cusp of entering as she takes her first steps into adulthood at the end of the book. But it's clear she will remain deeply influenced by her childhood and the place she calls home.
Snug in the schoolhouse during a winter storm she thinks:
But we-- all of us together-- were warm and happy. The two little ones recited their lessons. Right next to us the gale, like a misunderstood child, wept and stamped its feet outside the door. And I did not fully realize it yet-- often our joys are slow in coming home to us-- but I was living through one of the rarest happiness of my life. Was not all the world a child? Were we not at the day's morning?
December 10, 2013
Un autre bijou de Gabrielle Roy qui décrit bien l’atmosphère du Manitoba. Plein de sensibilité, de charme et aussi d’humour ce qui se passe sur la Rue Deschambault est à découvrir. C’est un récit émouvant.
March 6, 2021
"Street of Riches" is paired with "The Road Past Altamont" as a series of short stories based on Gabrielle Roy's childhood in St Boniface Manitoba. For me, the series is summed up as I think Roy intended it to be summed up in the last story in the book “To Earn My Living”. The last words of this the last and, for me, the ultimate, story in the book are:
“And I did not full realize it yet – often our joys are slow in coming home to us – but I was living through one of the rarest happinesses of my life. Was it not all the world a child? Were we not at day’s morning? … “
Throughout the book the metaphor of isolation is used. People are trapped by their circumstance, by the Manitoba winter … People yearn to be somewhere else, to be someone different. “To Earn My Living” represents that as the village of Cardinal in which Roy’s fictional persona “Christine” moves to take up her first job as the school teacher. The town is small and riven by suspicion among the inhabitants. There is the fierce winter with a blizzard with deep snow mounting into drifts. Yet Christine finds fulfilment in teaching and reaches the children emotionally. The ellipsis which ends the novel signifies this fulfillment and the optimism which it embodies.
The New Canadian Library edition of the book which I have has an afterward which finds feminism as a common element which unites the stories. I agree that it is there but I do not think that the stories are limited to that. The sense that one is being limited by outside forces affects all the characters in the book in one way or another. Christine’s father “Eduard” is asked to resign from his civil service job for many ostensible reasons but with the true underlying reason that the government has changed and he is of the wrong political party. He finds that he is old and in failing health and that he will not live to see his young children established in life. He is full of ideas for occupations past his civil service position but is too old and too poor to take them up. He paces the house at night isolated from his sleeping family. Finally, he dies in pain. Feminism is present in these stories but it is only one example of their broader human focus.
“And I did not full realize it yet – often our joys are slow in coming home to us – but I was living through one of the rarest happinesses of my life. Was it not all the world a child? Were we not at day’s morning? … “
Throughout the book the metaphor of isolation is used. People are trapped by their circumstance, by the Manitoba winter … People yearn to be somewhere else, to be someone different. “To Earn My Living” represents that as the village of Cardinal in which Roy’s fictional persona “Christine” moves to take up her first job as the school teacher. The town is small and riven by suspicion among the inhabitants. There is the fierce winter with a blizzard with deep snow mounting into drifts. Yet Christine finds fulfilment in teaching and reaches the children emotionally. The ellipsis which ends the novel signifies this fulfillment and the optimism which it embodies.
The New Canadian Library edition of the book which I have has an afterward which finds feminism as a common element which unites the stories. I agree that it is there but I do not think that the stories are limited to that. The sense that one is being limited by outside forces affects all the characters in the book in one way or another. Christine’s father “Eduard” is asked to resign from his civil service job for many ostensible reasons but with the true underlying reason that the government has changed and he is of the wrong political party. He finds that he is old and in failing health and that he will not live to see his young children established in life. He is full of ideas for occupations past his civil service position but is too old and too poor to take them up. He paces the house at night isolated from his sleeping family. Finally, he dies in pain. Feminism is present in these stories but it is only one example of their broader human focus.
January 7, 2019
Πραγματικά το απόλαυσα να διαβάζω αυτές τις νουβέλλες της Ροά. Ήταν μια πολύ ενδιαφέρουσα πρώτη επαφή με τον Καναδά. Μέσα από τα μάτια της συγγραφέως, την πολύ ανάλαφρη, ζωντανή και απλή πένα της, σε γνωρίζει με τους καθημερινούς ανθρώπους του Καναδά. Οι ιστορίες δεν αποτελούνταν από κάποιο κεντρικό συμβάν, αντίθετα αναδύωνταν από την καθημερινότητα των χαρακτήρων, τα καθημερινά βάσανα και τις χαρές τους. Συνεκτικό στοιχείο όλων, η μοναξιά του Καναδικού χειμώνα η πορεία ενός κοριτσιού από την παιδικότητα στην ενήλικη ζωή, και η οδός Ντεσαμπώ.
September 24, 2017
Rue Deschambault par Gabrielle Roy
Septembre 2017
2/5
*Lu dans le cadre de mon cours de littérature québécoise pour le diplôme du Baccalauréat International
Honnêtement, je n’avais aucune attente pour ce livre. En général, je trouve que la littérature québécoise d’avant les années 2000 est profondément ennuyante. C’est toujours les mêmes thèmes de la famille, la religion, l’emprisonnement … Bien que ces thèmes fassent partie intégrante de la culture québécoise, il ne m’interpelle aucunement. Ce sont des vieux thèmes qui témoigne encore et toujours de notre supposé soumission aux britanniques ou aux mœurs sociales religieuses qui ne s’appliquent plus aujourd’hui. Bien sûr, il s’agit là de mon opinion personnelle, certains de mes amis ont adoré ce roman justement pour les thèmes et l’approche autobiographique. Le personnage de Christine est calqué sur l’enfance de l’auteur. J’ai toujours de la misère à m’identifier à un personnage plus jeune que moi simplement parce que je ne suis plus capable de me retrouver dans l’immaturité d’une enfant de 7 ans. Cette héroïne pense d’ailleurs beaucoup trop comme une adulte dans certaines des histoires. Rue Deschambault recycle des vieux clichés québécois (bien que l’auteur soit manitobaine) et n’offre rien d’original.
Recommandations
Même sujet : La vie devant soi par Romain Gary
Même catégorie littéraire : Les maisons par Fanny Britt
Wild card : Des femmes savantes de Chloé Savoie-Bernard
Septembre 2017
2/5
*Lu dans le cadre de mon cours de littérature québécoise pour le diplôme du Baccalauréat International
Honnêtement, je n’avais aucune attente pour ce livre. En général, je trouve que la littérature québécoise d’avant les années 2000 est profondément ennuyante. C’est toujours les mêmes thèmes de la famille, la religion, l’emprisonnement … Bien que ces thèmes fassent partie intégrante de la culture québécoise, il ne m’interpelle aucunement. Ce sont des vieux thèmes qui témoigne encore et toujours de notre supposé soumission aux britanniques ou aux mœurs sociales religieuses qui ne s’appliquent plus aujourd’hui. Bien sûr, il s’agit là de mon opinion personnelle, certains de mes amis ont adoré ce roman justement pour les thèmes et l’approche autobiographique. Le personnage de Christine est calqué sur l’enfance de l’auteur. J’ai toujours de la misère à m’identifier à un personnage plus jeune que moi simplement parce que je ne suis plus capable de me retrouver dans l’immaturité d’une enfant de 7 ans. Cette héroïne pense d’ailleurs beaucoup trop comme une adulte dans certaines des histoires. Rue Deschambault recycle des vieux clichés québécois (bien que l’auteur soit manitobaine) et n’offre rien d’original.
Recommandations
Même sujet : La vie devant soi par Romain Gary
Même catégorie littéraire : Les maisons par Fanny Britt
Wild card : Des femmes savantes de Chloé Savoie-Bernard
July 20, 2017
I didn't enjoy this books as much as The Tin Flute but still a good book. The title itself tells one that Roy believed her growing up experiences to be something to treasure, and those little gems are scattered throughout the stories waiting only to be picked up.
My favourite stories were My Whooping Cough, The Voice of the Pools and by Day and by Night, and the scene in Gadabouts, where Maman meets again her childhood friend, was very touching.
Quotes:
'...revealing to me that sorrow has eyes the better to see how lovely is this world!'
'...almost always throughout my life I have been unable to hear a human say, "I love..." without feeling my heart contract with fear, and wanting with both arms to clasp that so sadly vulnerable being and protect it.'
My favourite stories were My Whooping Cough, The Voice of the Pools and by Day and by Night, and the scene in Gadabouts, where Maman meets again her childhood friend, was very touching.
Quotes:
'...revealing to me that sorrow has eyes the better to see how lovely is this world!'
'...almost always throughout my life I have been unable to hear a human say, "I love..." without feeling my heart contract with fear, and wanting with both arms to clasp that so sadly vulnerable being and protect it.'
June 1, 2011
Perfect! Worth reading in French; otherwise seek it out in translation.
Manitoba, early 20th century. Linked stories that make up a novel. Rekindled in me a love for the genre (contemporary mainstream novels mostly don't work for me). Subtlety of character built from a profound knowledge of a landscape, a mode of life, & the complexities of human relationships. Tracks the intellectual, affective and social maturation of a French-Canadian girl, Christine, otherwise known as La Petite or Petite Misere, the youngest of 9 children. Fiction of a sort that perhaps can no longer be written.
Manitoba, early 20th century. Linked stories that make up a novel. Rekindled in me a love for the genre (contemporary mainstream novels mostly don't work for me). Subtlety of character built from a profound knowledge of a landscape, a mode of life, & the complexities of human relationships. Tracks the intellectual, affective and social maturation of a French-Canadian girl, Christine, otherwise known as La Petite or Petite Misere, the youngest of 9 children. Fiction of a sort that perhaps can no longer be written.
November 2, 2015
Nothing like Gabrielle Roy to put me in touch with my childhood. Beautiful, evocative storytelling that centres the reader in another time and place throughout the reading. 1920's on the Canadian Prairies, Ms Roy is always a favourite Canadian author.
A perfect addition to the Travel the World in Books Readathon for OCtober 2015.
A perfect addition to the Travel the World in Books Readathon for OCtober 2015.
April 29, 2019
Absolutely fantastic, a hidden gem. Delightful prose, beautifully introspective and charming. Very clever addition to the coming-of-age genre, yet not cliche at all. I truly loved this one!
March 8, 2020
Great immersion in French Canadian history
September 13, 2025
J'adore la prose de Gabrielle Roy. J'ai particulièrement aimé l'histoire de sa tante si malade, à qui son oncle avait promis la Californie pour la soulager de ses maux, et qui se voit contrainte à déménager dans chacune des provinces de l'ouest canadien en semant ses enfants à chaque nouvel arrêt. J'ai adoré aussi les récits au sujet de leur pensionnaire noir, employé du chemin de fer, et de leur voisin italien si chaleureux. La tempête de neige affrontée avec ses cousins, et sa première expérience en enseignement dans le village rouge de Cardinal m'ont aussi beaucoup plus. Cependant mes extraits préférés sont l'histoire de la colonie installée par son père, agent de colonisation pour le gouvernement, et évidemment l'escapade mère-fille réalisée à l'insu du père, en train du Manitoba jusqu'au Québec, où elles n'étaient attendues de personne.
De courts récits où on prend toujours le temps d'admirer la nature, de vivre les émotions et d'apprécier les gens.
Lire Gabrielle Roy me fait du bien.
De courts récits où on prend toujours le temps d'admirer la nature, de vivre les émotions et d'apprécier les gens.
Lire Gabrielle Roy me fait du bien.
January 16, 2025
Un récit largement autobiographique qui explore les fossés entre les classes et les cultures s’intégrant au Manitoba natal de l’autrice. On pourrait aussi le considérer comme un éloge à la lenteur, puisque les événements qui y sont décrits sont relativement mondains (sans toutefois manquer de mordant), mais l’on sent ô combien ils ont été formateurs pour l’imaginaire de l’écrivaine qu’est devenue Gabrielle Roy. Parfois, j’ai l’impression que des récits du genre définissent des maux contemporains avant qu’ils n’aient été libellés. On a parfois l’impression qu’on a accès aux flux de conscience de voyageurs, d’un fonctionnaire surmené, ou encore d’une enfant délaissée. L’atmosphère est rude comme son époque et ceci se transpose dans les aléas des personnages qu’on sent parfois las, abattus, épuisés, voire écœurés. Le tout se fait sans ambages, ni lunettes roses. Comme le roman se réclame de style réaliste, on sent toute la rudesse du pays (mais l’immensité de ce dernier aussi) et parfois celle de ses habitants. Cependant, on sent également tout l’amour et l’aspect fusionnel qui soudait Mme Roy avec certains de ses proches.
November 24, 2025
Ce que je n'aime pas des biographies c'est qu'on souvent nous dit sans nous montrer. Mais ces histoires, malgré leur précision ou lien avec la réalité, sont individuellement ainsi qu'ensemble une portrait d'une jeunesse qui lutte avec les réalités et des idées universelles. c'est très bien capturé l'esprit d'un roman d'éducation alors que c'est aussi beaucoup plus à propos les adultes dans son monde.
June 29, 2013
This was my first time reading Gabrielle Roy, 1955. I got so much out of “Street Of Riches” (“Rue Deschambault” in French). I brace myself for classic works to be mundane, by associated remembrance of school books which aren’t chosen by children. We saw the film “Bonheur d’occasion”, a dark depiction of a family. I surmised all her stories were about strife. Her family house is on a ghost tour route! It is wise to explore literature for yourself. When I closed the cover of “Street Of Riches”, I felt uplifted with pride, intellect, and beauty.
Her thought-provoking passages are pretty and the imagery of an undeveloped 1920s city. I’m young but remember wheatgrass and ‘monkey trails’ before more houses got plunked onto our neighbourhood. Gabrielle is as local as it gets. I’m from ‘New St. Boniface’, she ‘Vieux St. Boniface’. Our author exceptionally conveys a wandering mind, moods, and perception. This is a short story collection supposed to be a memoir of her life, using different names such as protagonist ‘Christine’. In one, she is about 8 and angry with her father. She sulks in her favourite attic room and describes what you see of the sky from the angle of a floor, a spider climbing from a ceiling....
Her father was a government worker better off than many. Her mother longed to travel and snuck her away for a month. Locating Maman’s childhood friend was poignant. When ‘Christine’ told Maman she wanted a career as an author: “to repay the joy books brought to me”; anyone with this dream would get chills at hearing the wish expressed like never before! Maman’s advice about the hardship of this profession is eerily insightful. Not least, it is a joy to read award-winning literature set on streets with which you’re familiar!
Her thought-provoking passages are pretty and the imagery of an undeveloped 1920s city. I’m young but remember wheatgrass and ‘monkey trails’ before more houses got plunked onto our neighbourhood. Gabrielle is as local as it gets. I’m from ‘New St. Boniface’, she ‘Vieux St. Boniface’. Our author exceptionally conveys a wandering mind, moods, and perception. This is a short story collection supposed to be a memoir of her life, using different names such as protagonist ‘Christine’. In one, she is about 8 and angry with her father. She sulks in her favourite attic room and describes what you see of the sky from the angle of a floor, a spider climbing from a ceiling....
Her father was a government worker better off than many. Her mother longed to travel and snuck her away for a month. Locating Maman’s childhood friend was poignant. When ‘Christine’ told Maman she wanted a career as an author: “to repay the joy books brought to me”; anyone with this dream would get chills at hearing the wish expressed like never before! Maman’s advice about the hardship of this profession is eerily insightful. Not least, it is a joy to read award-winning literature set on streets with which you’re familiar!
April 3, 2017
To be honest I absolutely hated this book. I know that it's kind of an autobiography but I kept waiting for something interesting to happen and nothing ever did. I liked Christine and I liked some chapters (the one where she goes with her mother to stop her sister from getting married for example) but overall the book was REALLY boring and useless. I had to read this for my french class but it was honestly soo boring that I got tempted to DNF it (and I NEVER do that because I happen to love reading). The writing style was okk (which is why I gave this book 2 stars) but other than that I honestly don't understand why people love it so much...
If you do end up reading it then I hope you enjoy it but this was just not for me...
If you do end up reading it then I hope you enjoy it but this was just not for me...
November 6, 2014
Published in 1955, Rue Deschambault is a remarkable collection of short stories about growing up as a Francophone in Manitoba that taken together as a manifesto for the type of multi-cultural and multi-racial Canada that Pierre Trudeau would attempt to create during his years as Prime Minister from 1968 to 1984. Some of these stories now seem a bit naive and possibly overly optimistic. Nonetheless Canada has generally tried to follow the path proposed by Roy in this charming book and is a much better place for having made this effort.
September 10, 2024
A wonderful collection of short stories about a young, coming-of-age, French girl in Manitoba.
With these stories, Gabrielle Roy touches many topics such as feminism, racism, and immigration which, at the time, were not of such significance as they are today.
I greatly recommend if you need a bit of a slower, more casual read.
With these stories, Gabrielle Roy touches many topics such as feminism, racism, and immigration which, at the time, were not of such significance as they are today.
I greatly recommend if you need a bit of a slower, more casual read.
September 14, 2011
I loved this novel. I loved just about everything about it: the characters, the location, the writing style, the plots. I loved the connections and themes. Here is my blog post on the novel.
November 28, 2022
Même si elle ne m'a pas saisie dès la première page, j'ai bien aimé cette histoire d'une fille qui grandit dans une famille franco-manitobaine. Finalement, le récit est devenu de plus en plus intéressant, donnant un portrait qui me semble authentique de la vie au Manitoba au début du XXe siècle. (C'était après le naufrage du Titanic, et on parle aussi du premier ministre Borden, alors j'estime que l'histoire se passe dans les années 1920, peut-être.) C'est en effet dans le chapitre qui parle du Titanic que j'ai commencé à vraiment aimer l'histoire et la manière dont elle est écrite.
Voici certains de mes passages préférés :
– Il ne ferait pas bon être en mer ce soir, dit-il à maman.
[...]
Mais d'où vient que nos plaines glacées, que nos pauvres plaines gelées ne suffisaient pas à nous donner une assez haute idée de la solitude! Que pour en parler comme il faut, nous autres, les gens enfoncés au plus intérieur du continent, nous évoquions l'océan!
(page 90)
Mon oncle Majorique sourit un peu à ma question, mais sans intention de me moquer. Au contraire, mon oncle Majorique aimait expliquer les choses, et il le faisait bien, car il avait chez lui la série complète de l'encyclopédie Britannica. Or, dans les fermes du Manitoba, l'hiver, il ne reste plus grand ouvrage; alors mon oncle apprenait dans ses livres comment fonctionnent le téléphone, la télégraphie sans fil, la radio [...] Il se mit donc à me renseigner: sur un bateau il y avait des cuisines, des marmites, des bibliothèques, des salons avec des lustres, des fleurs fraîches, des jeux de toute sorte pour récréer les passagers [...] bref, c'était une ville qui s'en allait seule sur les mers... Le soir elle était pleine de lumières qui se déversaient sur les vagues, et un moment peut-être l'eau noire en était comme réjouie...
(page 92)
– En effet, ils dansaient mais il ne faut pas l'oublier, les couples sur le Titainc étaient presque tous des nouveaux mariés... en lune de miel... Monsieur!
Alors mon oncle Majorique a vu la question dans mes yeux. Il m'a dit ce qu'était la lune de miel:
– Le temps des amours, au début du mariage, quand tout est beau...
– Ensuite, c'est moins beau ? (page 93)
Je pensais à ces pauvres gens si heureux d'être ensemble sur le bateau. M. Elie a ricané tout à coup. Il a dit d'eux, de ceux du Titanic:
– Hammerstein ! Vanderbilt ! ... La haute finance de New York ! ... Voilà ce qui se trouvait sur le Titanic ! des millionnaires !
Ainsi les pauvres gens étaient riches ! (pages 93-94)
L'histoire raconte aussi d'autres scènes de la vie, certaines heureuses, certaines bien tristes. Elle termine sur une note positive, lorsque Christine est bien au chaud avec ses élèves dans son école. Elle n'est pas encore écrivaine, mais elle « gagne sa vie » et elle vit un moment chaleureux.
Voici certains de mes passages préférés :
– Il ne ferait pas bon être en mer ce soir, dit-il à maman.
[...]
Mais d'où vient que nos plaines glacées, que nos pauvres plaines gelées ne suffisaient pas à nous donner une assez haute idée de la solitude! Que pour en parler comme il faut, nous autres, les gens enfoncés au plus intérieur du continent, nous évoquions l'océan!
(page 90)
Mon oncle Majorique sourit un peu à ma question, mais sans intention de me moquer. Au contraire, mon oncle Majorique aimait expliquer les choses, et il le faisait bien, car il avait chez lui la série complète de l'encyclopédie Britannica. Or, dans les fermes du Manitoba, l'hiver, il ne reste plus grand ouvrage; alors mon oncle apprenait dans ses livres comment fonctionnent le téléphone, la télégraphie sans fil, la radio [...] Il se mit donc à me renseigner: sur un bateau il y avait des cuisines, des marmites, des bibliothèques, des salons avec des lustres, des fleurs fraîches, des jeux de toute sorte pour récréer les passagers [...] bref, c'était une ville qui s'en allait seule sur les mers... Le soir elle était pleine de lumières qui se déversaient sur les vagues, et un moment peut-être l'eau noire en était comme réjouie...
(page 92)
– En effet, ils dansaient mais il ne faut pas l'oublier, les couples sur le Titainc étaient presque tous des nouveaux mariés... en lune de miel... Monsieur!
Alors mon oncle Majorique a vu la question dans mes yeux. Il m'a dit ce qu'était la lune de miel:
– Le temps des amours, au début du mariage, quand tout est beau...
– Ensuite, c'est moins beau ? (page 93)
Je pensais à ces pauvres gens si heureux d'être ensemble sur le bateau. M. Elie a ricané tout à coup. Il a dit d'eux, de ceux du Titanic:
– Hammerstein ! Vanderbilt ! ... La haute finance de New York ! ... Voilà ce qui se trouvait sur le Titanic ! des millionnaires !
Ainsi les pauvres gens étaient riches ! (pages 93-94)
L'histoire raconte aussi d'autres scènes de la vie, certaines heureuses, certaines bien tristes. Elle termine sur une note positive, lorsque Christine est bien au chaud avec ses élèves dans son école. Elle n'est pas encore écrivaine, mais elle « gagne sa vie » et elle vit un moment chaleureux.
May 30, 2022
This book has a very different feel to it than her first novel, THE TIN FLUTE, which concentrated on the hardships of the French-Canadian population in Montreal at the beginning of World War II. This book is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel of Christine, who like Gabrielle Roy, grew up in the first half of the twentieth century in the French-Canadian enclave of St. Boniface in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I have made quite a few trips to Winnipeg and always enjoy walking around this French-speaking neighborhood right across the Red River from downtown. The stories bring out the joy Christine felt in the neighborhood and within her large family. Like her earlier book, the characters are brought out very well and we get Christine's take on all the different personalities. While the book was translated from French, it is hard to tell to pick out the distinctive French-Canadian elements of their lives there, as most of the stories center on the family and the neighborhood. A very enjoyable book.
June 29, 2023
I have this experience reading early modernist short stories/novels where they don’t always seem very fresh, but I have to remind myself that that’s because everyone has copied them for the past 70 years.
I wasn’t grabbed by this book much as literature but as historical document about the lives of francophone Manitobans specifically and life in the old northwest in general around the 1910s-30s it’s really interesting. I could imagine my Norwegian American grandma’s (who was the same age as the author) life in Minneapolis easily.
I wasn’t grabbed by this book much as literature but as historical document about the lives of francophone Manitobans specifically and life in the old northwest in general around the 1910s-30s it’s really interesting. I could imagine my Norwegian American grandma’s (who was the same age as the author) life in Minneapolis easily.
June 6, 2025
Superb writing, amazing scene setting and a real glimpse of 1920's Manitoba living. In addition, it packs a subtle punch with wisdom and discussion of still timely issues such as immigration and family dynamics.
Highly recommend for Manitobans and Canadian aficionados. Read and then visit the house that is now a museum in Winnipeg!
P53 "..why is it that the time of futile questions, of minute problems probed to no effect, is the time that recurs and recurs to the soul as the time it has used the best?"
Fave stories: The Gadabouts. My pink hat. Well of Dunrea. My aunt Theresina.
Highly recommend for Manitobans and Canadian aficionados. Read and then visit the house that is now a museum in Winnipeg!
P53 "..why is it that the time of futile questions, of minute problems probed to no effect, is the time that recurs and recurs to the soul as the time it has used the best?"
Fave stories: The Gadabouts. My pink hat. Well of Dunrea. My aunt Theresina.
May 29, 2023
J'ai passé à deux doigts de mettre cinq étoiles.
Très belles fresques de la vie de Roy - romancées et "fictionnaliséees, mais bien ancrées dans son vécu - de ses années de fillette à sa première envolée de la maison parentale, rue Deschambault. Touchant, superbement écrit, plein de sensibilité et de réflexions sur la vie.
Très belles fresques de la vie de Roy - romancées et "fictionnaliséees, mais bien ancrées dans son vécu - de ses années de fillette à sa première envolée de la maison parentale, rue Deschambault. Touchant, superbement écrit, plein de sensibilité et de réflexions sur la vie.
Read
September 28, 2021Premier chapitre raciste (plusieurs occurrences du mot en N)
Malgré cela, j'ai bien aimé l'oeuvre. Elle m'a paru très douce et apaisante. Les chapitres sur la relation entre la narratrice et ses soeurs m'ont particulièrement touchée.
Malgré cela, j'ai bien aimé l'oeuvre. Elle m'a paru très douce et apaisante. Les chapitres sur la relation entre la narratrice et ses soeurs m'ont particulièrement touchée.
April 29, 2024
Charming vignettes in the life of a girl living in early 20th century Winnipeg. Some stories were quite emotional and driven, bit often it seemed like just a moment versus something that drove the main character in seeing something new in life and thusly created a lack of conclusion.
July 30, 2024
Loved it, the location & the writing style. Short stories based on her childhood in St Boniface. My Mom grew up down the street on Rue Deschambault. Hearing her storytelling meant something special to me !
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