The Native

by David Plante

In rebellion against his traditional heritage, Philip Francoeur marries Jenny, a Protestant who personifies the modern emancipated woman, and must confront their restless daughter, Antoinette, who is torn between two powerful traditions

128 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

The son of Albina Bisson and Aniclet Plante, he is of both French-Canadian and North American Indian descent.He is a graduate of Boston College and the Université catholique de Louvain. He has been published extensively including in The New Yorker and The Paris Review and various literary magazines. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Among his honours are: Henfield Fellow, University of East Anglia, 1975; British Arts Council Grant, 1977; Guggenheim Fellowship, 1983; American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award, 1983. He is an Ambassador for the LGBT Committee of the New York Public Library. His voluminous diary is kept in the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library. His papers are kept in the library of The University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a retired professor of creative writing at Columbia University. His novels examine the spiritual in a variety of contexts, but notably in the milieu of large, working-class, Catholic families of French Canadian background. His male characters range from openly gay to sexually ambiguous and questioning.
He has been a writer-in-residence at Gorki Institute of Literature (Moscow), the Université du Québec à Montréal, Adelphi University, King's College, the University of Cambridge, Tulsa University, and the University of East Anglia. Plante’s work, for which he has been nominated for the National Book Award, includes Difficult Women (1983), a memoir of his relationships with Jean Rhys, Sonia Orwell, and Germaine Greer and the widely-praised Francoeur Trilogy--The Family (1978), The Country (1980) and The Woods (1982). His most recent book is a memoir of Nikos Stangos, his partner of forty years, The Pure Lover (2009). The papers of his former partner, Nikos Stangos (1936-2004), are in The Princeton University Library, the Program in Hellenic Studies. Plante lives in London, Lucca Italy, and Athens Greece. He has dual citizenship, American and British.
Considered to be a writer's writer and having lived for so many years among the artistic elite, David's personal memories are seen by many as high cultural history.

Reviews

[Bruce Reid · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's perversely impressive that such a slim book can tick off so many expected beats in its familiar portrayal of repressed New Englanders; the sheer number of pained silences, clenched fists, and silent walks up the stairs would seem impossible to fit into 122 pages, but the author somehow manages it. In fairness this is my first exposure to a series of linked novels; in honesty, none of the grim proceedings or silly contrasts between glum, snow-shrouded Catholics and buoyantly sunny Protestants prompts me to explore further. There's definitely talent here--a lengthy middle section nicely conveys the unmalicious narcissism of teenagers--but it's dribbled out as sparingly as any of the characters' words of love or hope.