Heroine

by Gail Scott, Eileen Myles (Introduction)

In a bathtub in a rooming house in Montreal in 1980, a woman tries to imagine a new life for herself: a life after a passionate affair with a man while falling for a woman, a life that makes sense after her deep involvement in far left politics during the turbulent seventies of Quebec, a life whose form she knows can only be grasped as she speaks it. A new, revised edition of a seminal work of edgy, experimental feminism. With a foreword by Eileen Myles.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Queer, Feminism, LGBT, Poetry, Novels

185 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heroine was a contradictory and exuberant and utterly unique read for me. In one way it made me sad, for the way a 30+ year old feminist novel reminds me that so little has changed...that what looks like social progress is often just a good patch that we happen to be living through, before the conservative forces return. In another way it exhilarated me, because it's formally so new, even after 3 decades. It reminds me of how writers constantly find new ways to express the inexpressible, and to overcome the limitations of language. I frequently had no idea what was going on! And yet each sentence was so captivating that I just kept being okay with it. Each sentence I could honest think: "I've never read that sentence before." This is stream of consciousness writing with a writer who might be the most exquisitely sensitive human being ever to have thought a thought. Beautiful images and a sense of frothy knowing-ness bounded along from page to page in a way that left me happy and satisfied to have spent time with Gail Scott.

[Julia Taylor]

This book was definitely challenging. One long and winding stream of consciousness as our heroine reflects in her bathtub on her involvement in far left politics in Montreal in the 70s, free love, and where life goes from here. I often felt lost in her thoughts, but I think she was too. Overall, an interesting work of Canadian feminist literature. “Suddenly I could see how survival for a woman is a little like the negative of a photo. She has to pick the place in where night (her deepest self) and day (reality) are combined in the right synthesis of light and dark for her. Even if it’s not quite socially acceptable.”

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in my early 20’s part of a radical women’s bookclub in Montreal. The book was exciting and resonated strongly with my own story of growing up in Northern Ontario and being deeply attracted to Montreal and the underground cultural and militant political scenes. Gail Scott is an under appreciated Canadian author and this book is a neglected little gem.

[jjreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars I think. I liked it but it might’ve been over my head at times and a little too Pomo for my taste. Will definitely revisit this when I’m less busy and have more time to devote to it! Lots of themes to tease out and threads to pull.

[Anna Dowdall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some reviewer has commented that this oozes a kind of YA like purple relationship angst, and I have to agree. Not quite sure why it's been reprinted.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The heroine keeps walking. Wondering why a woman can't get what she wants without going into business on every front. Social, political, economic, domestic. Each requiring a different way of walking, a different way of talking. She looks instinctively for her own reflection in a store window. But it's as yet too dark to see clearly."
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Coachhousebooks re-released this book last month. Originally published in 1987, It's a very interesting read! Political, feminist and queer.

We find our narrator, Heroine in Montreal in the 1980's laying in a bathtub. In a dream like sequence her memories of love and politics from the unsettling times of Montreal in the 70's float to the surface, seeing her struggle between finding love and breaking her deep ties in left wing politics, with the backdrop of volitile times in Montreal made this a tense and potent read.

Heroine is a complicated/facinating narrator, with many layers. And Scott's writting is brilliant, the way she weaves a sentance sheesh it inspired me want to write more. The structure of this novel and story itself are really well done. I found myself thinking about this book when I wasn't reading it, wanting to read it but not wanting it to end.
I loved that this is a Canadian story, showcasing a piece of turbulent history from Montreal. Knowing this made it feel all the more realistic.

This is a true Canadian and Feminist Classic!
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Thank you to the publisher for sending me this book opinions are my own.
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[Stéphanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heroine a été publié en 1987 et nous plonge dans le Montréal de la fin des années '70. Une femme, dans son bain, songe en alternance au roman qu'elle tente d'écrire et en bribes à sa propre vie, elle qui a longtemps été impliquée dans un groupe de gauche révolutionnaire, jonglant féminisme et relations non-monogames.

Gail Scott y déploie des pensées en staccato, et les pages explosent de vulnérabilité, de sentiment contradictoire, d'ambivalence brouillée devant une relation compliquée. Repoussant la jalousie en voulant être une "femme progressiste", la lutte interne de la protagoniste et sa volonté de jouer son rôle sur tous les plans à la fois m'a happée de son acuité. Devoir à la fois rejeter stoïquement les valeurs du couple hétérosexuel, ne jamais être mélodramatique, possessive ou nécessiteuse en amour, repousser l'amertume, être désirable, articulée et posée en tout temps... Bref, cette idée que les émotions humaines (et surtout celles associées à la féminité) sont à combattre, étouffer, surpasser pour devenir une vraie héroïne qui vaille la peine d'être lue, qui a une histoire intéressante.

Ce roman expérimental m'a énormément plu; son contexte montréalais, son rythme non-linéaire empli d'intimité, les tournures de phrases envoûtantes, le dialogue interne de la protagoniste, explorant les failles des milieux militants de gauche, mais aussi le schisme tumultueux entre les émotions, le ressenti, et la théorie, les causes et valeurs qu'on souhaite incarner.

[jonah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Marie thought the ‘let live’ in ‘live and let live’ was redundant. A woman just had to concentrate on living for herself. Since she’s not responsible for the other, there’s no ‘letting live’ involved.”

“I walk on. My special glasses see, in the window of a photo store, a picture of a girl and a soldier holding hands under a big tree. But the soldier is X’d out and underneath is written: Ecartez le soldat. In the next picture the soldier is effectivement écarté. There’s just the girl. What I like is the anti-militarism of the sequence (for there’s revolt in Portugal). Also, the refusal to acknowledge the soldier’s tragedy. Surrealism hates notalgia, a key ingredient of war. (But where are you, my love, this minute? And why are you so angry?)”

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

love a poetic book about a woman walking around a city thinking about things. nonlinear, atmospheric, infused with leftist politics. would pair well with indivisible by fanny howe, another favorite of mine

[Myra Breckinridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

Years later, and years older than Heroine, the book reads like far-left stream-of-conscious YA.

[HighPrairieBookworm - Jonni Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

While in her bathtub, the Heroine looks back at her life as it has been, to how it is now, and forward to what she wishes to be. Her thoughts twist forward, back, around, and in never-ending swirls until her musing at the beginning of the novel makes sense…”But first I have to figure out Janis’s saying there’s no tomorrow, it’s all the same goddamned day”.

Gail Scott has the beautiful gift of being able to evoke the feeling of time and of place. Although I’ve been to Montreal only once I still felt as if I not only knew it but was experiencing it as it was.
The story resonates even now over 30 years after it was published. This is a beautiful book.

In the interest of full disclosure I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe best as a series of puzzle, of form, but in terms of content and narrative, a gross failure.

We read this in my book club and no one else liked it.

Several of the problems included:

- repetition.
- lack of development.
- lack of sympathy with anyone in the novel.
- repetition?

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read for the first time since 2003. Still beautiful, sad, compelling.

[Gail Castillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a very difficult book to read where you can definitely get lost within this nonlinear timeline. The heroine is reminiscing about her life by looking back at moments that have defined her activism and social stance. However, the characters become incoherent on which lover is she talking about. Yet, Scott manages to depict the misogyny women go through and how an abusive on-and-off heteronormative relationship can cause within your mental state.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very evocative look at a time and place in history, and written with a clear love for Quebec. Another theme is a weary disillusionment with the posturing of far-left politics, with which I can certainly identify. Unfortunately, there is a lot of French dialogue that is NOT translated. I understand not wanting to clutter up the story with footnotes, but some endnotes would've been nice.

[Ponytaorponyboy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is not for me, clearly. Without my professor helping us through the interpretations, and without all the History of Quebec classes I've had in my short existence, I dont think I would have understood as much...

[Robert More · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book gets a lot of praise. I guess it's for the kind of reader that prefers literature with a capital L. As for me, I prefer my books have a story. I only got about halfway through this, and I still couldn't tell you what it is about.

[GwenViolet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you read a description of a novel and let a "where have you been all my life???" and this was one of those for me, but more importantly it lived up to that initial reaction.

Gotta read everything Gail Scott wrote I guess??

[abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

that was a lot of thinking and reflecting. maybe too much for my taste.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Acquired Fall 1995
Concordia University Bookstore, Montreal, Quebec

[Billie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Experimental, compelling and confounding. Queer, feminist cut-up style stoned dreams of love and power and glued back together in the obscure and radical political discord of 70s Quebec.

[Vijay Shirture]

i would like to read this book.

[Eaton Hamilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read "Heroine" since it was first issued, but I still remember my disappointment. I wanted so much more from it than it gave.