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Soifs #4
Rebecca, Born in the Maelstrom
With this astounding fourth novel in her ongoing series of contemporary masterpieces, Marie-Claire Blais invites us again to enter a complex circle of unforgettable characters. But this time, the tone is different: Blais’ writing has acquired a new, buoyant, electrifying rhythm a rhythm described as "the heartbeat of the world." As we follow a central character named Rebecca, the voice in the novel becomes the voice of the world inventing itself, and the future playing itself out. Here Nigel Spencer, Marie-Claire Blais’ longtime translator, gives us Blais’ singular vision in supple English prose that is as transcendent and nuanced as the original French.
232 pages, Paperback
First published April 22, 2008
About the author
Marie-Claire Blais
87 books87 followersMarie-Claire Blais naît à Québec en 1939. Elle publie à l’âge de vingt ans un premier roman, La Belle Bête, dans lequel elle analyse avec une âpre lucidité les ressorts psychologiques d’une relation violente, pleine de haine et d’envie, entre une jeune femme trop laide et son frère, simple d’esprit mais si beau que l’on ne voit que lui. Cette violence, cette sauvagerie resteront présentes dans tous les livres et le théâtre de Marie Claire Blais. Son lyrisme très personnel permet à l’auteur de traverser les apparences pour révéler les monstruosités de la vie.
Aussitôt remarquée, Marie-Claire Blais reçoit une bourse de la Fondation Guggenheim et se met à écrire Une saison dans la vie d’Emmanuel, ouvrage pour lequel elle obtiendra le prix Médicis en 1966. Dès lors, son œuvre se déploie à une vitesse surprenante et compte à ce jour plus de vingt romans, cinq pièces de théâtre et plusieurs recueils de poésie. Des séjours prolongés aux États-Unis, en France et en Chine notamment, des bourses et de nombreux prix, dont le prix France-Québec en 1976, ont aidé Marie-Claire Blais à s’adonner entièrement à une œuvre authentique et exigeante. Citons pêle-mêle, Tête blanche (1980), L’Insoumise (1966), David Sterne (1967), Manuscrits de Pauline Archange (1968), Une liaison parisienne (1975), Visions d’Anna (1982), Pierre (1986), Un jardin dans la tempête (1990), Dans la foudre et la lumière (2001), Naissance de Rebecca à l'ère des tourments (2008) et Mai au bal des prédateurs (2010).
Enfances solitaires, innocences bafouées, révoltes, inusable tendresse sont autant de thèmes qui jalonnent l’œuvre d’un auteur qui n’imagine pas de réalisme sans transfiguration poétique. Québécoise dans l’âme, Marie-Claire Blais est une militante convaincue pour la francophonie. Ses ouvrages ont été traduits en de multiples langues et publiés au Canada anglais, aux États Unis, en Angleterre, en Espagne, en Allemagne, en Italie, au Danemark, en Hongrie, au Japon, en Norvège et en République tchèque.
Deux fois boursière de la Fondation Guggenheim (1963 et 1965), Marie-Claire Blais a reçu, pour l’ensemble de son œuvre, les Prix France-Québec (1966), Prix Canada-Belgique (1976), Prix Athanase-David (1982), Prix Duvernay (1988), Prix Nessim Habif de l’Académie royale de la langue et de la littérature françaises de Belgique (1990), Prix international de l’Union latine des littératures romanes (1999), Grand Prix littéraire international Métropolis Bleu (2000), Prix W.O. Mitchell (2000), Prix littéraire de la Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco (2002), Prix Gilles-Corbeil décerné par la Fondation Émile Nelligan (2005) et le Prix Matt Cohen du Writer’s Trust of Canada (2007).
En marge des prix littéraires reçus, elle a été élue en 1986 à la Société royale du Canada (Académie des lettres et des sciences humaines) et, en 1992, à l'Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique devenant la première écrivaine québécoise à siéger dans une académie littéraire européenne. Elle a rejoint l'Académie des lettres du Québec en 1994 et, en 1999, elle a reçu les insignes de Chevalier des arts et des lettres (France).
Parallèlement à ces honneurs, elle a aussi reçu l’Ordre du Canada (1975), la Médaille commémorative du 125e anniversaire de la Confédération du Canada (1992), l’Ordre national du Québec (1995), a été nommée Woman of the year for services to literature and creative writing (1995-1996) par The International Biographical Centre of Cambridge, England, et reçu le Degree of International Letters for Cultural Achievement fiction, creative writing (1997) par The American Biographical Institute.
Aussitôt remarquée, Marie-Claire Blais reçoit une bourse de la Fondation Guggenheim et se met à écrire Une saison dans la vie d’Emmanuel, ouvrage pour lequel elle obtiendra le prix Médicis en 1966. Dès lors, son œuvre se déploie à une vitesse surprenante et compte à ce jour plus de vingt romans, cinq pièces de théâtre et plusieurs recueils de poésie. Des séjours prolongés aux États-Unis, en France et en Chine notamment, des bourses et de nombreux prix, dont le prix France-Québec en 1976, ont aidé Marie-Claire Blais à s’adonner entièrement à une œuvre authentique et exigeante. Citons pêle-mêle, Tête blanche (1980), L’Insoumise (1966), David Sterne (1967), Manuscrits de Pauline Archange (1968), Une liaison parisienne (1975), Visions d’Anna (1982), Pierre (1986), Un jardin dans la tempête (1990), Dans la foudre et la lumière (2001), Naissance de Rebecca à l'ère des tourments (2008) et Mai au bal des prédateurs (2010).
Enfances solitaires, innocences bafouées, révoltes, inusable tendresse sont autant de thèmes qui jalonnent l’œuvre d’un auteur qui n’imagine pas de réalisme sans transfiguration poétique. Québécoise dans l’âme, Marie-Claire Blais est une militante convaincue pour la francophonie. Ses ouvrages ont été traduits en de multiples langues et publiés au Canada anglais, aux États Unis, en Angleterre, en Espagne, en Allemagne, en Italie, au Danemark, en Hongrie, au Japon, en Norvège et en République tchèque.
Deux fois boursière de la Fondation Guggenheim (1963 et 1965), Marie-Claire Blais a reçu, pour l’ensemble de son œuvre, les Prix France-Québec (1966), Prix Canada-Belgique (1976), Prix Athanase-David (1982), Prix Duvernay (1988), Prix Nessim Habif de l’Académie royale de la langue et de la littérature françaises de Belgique (1990), Prix international de l’Union latine des littératures romanes (1999), Grand Prix littéraire international Métropolis Bleu (2000), Prix W.O. Mitchell (2000), Prix littéraire de la Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco (2002), Prix Gilles-Corbeil décerné par la Fondation Émile Nelligan (2005) et le Prix Matt Cohen du Writer’s Trust of Canada (2007).
En marge des prix littéraires reçus, elle a été élue en 1986 à la Société royale du Canada (Académie des lettres et des sciences humaines) et, en 1992, à l'Académie royale de langue et de littérature françaises de Belgique devenant la première écrivaine québécoise à siéger dans une académie littéraire européenne. Elle a rejoint l'Académie des lettres du Québec en 1994 et, en 1999, elle a reçu les insignes de Chevalier des arts et des lettres (France).
Parallèlement à ces honneurs, elle a aussi reçu l’Ordre du Canada (1975), la Médaille commémorative du 125e anniversaire de la Confédération du Canada (1992), l’Ordre national du Québec (1995), a été nommée Woman of the year for services to literature and creative writing (1995-1996) par The International Biographical Centre of Cambridge, England, et reçu le Degree of International Letters for Cultural Achievement fiction, creative writing (1997) par The American Biographical Institute.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 30, 2018
Last night I watched a film called The Good Catholic, a very light comedy-drama about three Franciscan’s living together and running a small parish somewhere in the U.S. Although the film was about the youngest of the three and his relationship with the two veteran priests and with a young woman, a singer-songwriter he met through the Confessional late one evening. What caught my attention, perhaps in the context of Blais’ work, was a brief episode in which the actor John C McGinley, a Basketball loving and sugar-addict Franciscan who (as one might easily imagine knowing the characters he often plays as he did in Scrubs) gave a brief but wonderful and extremely heartfelt homily on what having compassion means: can you suffer with another? That is what I felt in reading Marie-Claire Blais’ Rebecca, Born in the Maelstrom. I know a lot of people – bright, well-educated, ambitious and good people – who can’t bear to read a newspaper because of the darkness present there. I had the sense though that people matter to Blais, and that she is interested in social justice and in people’s pain, and that her eyes are wide-open and non-judgmental.
I was surprised when on finishing Marie-Claire Blais’ book (on Jan 27th 2018) I discovered purely by chance that that this was the anniversary of Mahalia Jackson’s death in 1972 at the age of 61. As Harry Belafonte described her and the role of the Church in civil rights movement, she was likely a modern day saint: It had been Jackson who, as Martin Luther King was finishing his speech in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 (twice mentioned in the Rebecca) called out “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” There did seem a dreaminess about Blais’ Rebecca - a stream of consciousness about it even though there were many narrators in this story written sometime in the late 2000’s - and one can feel the presence of injustice, poverty, violence, anguish and to some degree the modern threat of terrorism.
There are four main voices. One is Esther, known as ‘Mere’, perhaps a matriarch, now in her mid-80s, with her friends / lovers like Suzanne, Caroline vanishing as the old do: I liked her presence as she seemed intelligent, kind, observant and reflective, opinionated but discrete in her opinions, who loved the arts and artists and her family, especially it seemed her granddaughter Mai. Mai’s the second main voice, and is the 14 year daughter of Melanie, a politician - perhaps even President of the country this mainly took place in - a teenager full of angst, going to school, dating a 18 year old who’s driving his father’s Mercedes and missing her too-often away mother and her similarly absent – albeit mentally– father, who is a self-preoccupied and somewhat frustrated writer. The third is Ari, an artist, separated with a daughter, who is travelling in Guatemala with his monk friend Ashok and in anguish over the misery he sees. The fourth is Tigli, my favorite, who happens to be on the same bus as Ari, and who is a fireman-midwife, possibly dying of AIDS, seated next to and helping a 14 year, impregnated and abandoned and on the verge of giving birth. There are other voices but it seems to be Mai, Mere and Tigli that give form and life to the story. Ari – like Augustino, Alphonso the would-be terrorist and perhaps much of the story – all are like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, in the background presaging doom, doom we are all doomed. Tigli though, possibly dying from AIDS, is radiant – full of life and full of the love of life.
I was intrigued by Blais’ treatment of Chuan. I liked her: she has a strong, reoccurring presence and has a few things we hear her say from time to time. She’s smart and ambitious, a good wife, a good mother, is ‘pretty in pink’ as the hostess at a major Christmas party, is a professional and very successful designer / architect for a developer of hotels / resorts and reads. She’s given though no voice: we never hear her thoughts. I think Chuan is from Hong Kong, and in Cantonese ‘Chuan’ means to simply pass through. I wondered amid the cacophony of Blais’ characterizations it almost seemed to have been Chuan who she was signalling out because of all the characters in the story – even joyous Tigli – she seemed paradoxically the embodiment of success but seemed asleep. Blais is quoted somewhere as saying ‘personally, I don’t like suffering. I prefer serenity. I am not at all a dark person …it’s just that so many of my friends seem to have an aptitude for suffering. … the world is a terrible place but we have the tools to change. We have just to wake up.’
I liked Blais’ writing: it seemed more poetry than novel, in the classic sense of what we expect from a novel. But nonetheless, what Blais has to say, her characterizations, the sense of drama, were real and as in the best stories stay in our minds and heads. I think she also had something important to say and said it well, in spite of the lack of punctuation.
Edwin
I was surprised when on finishing Marie-Claire Blais’ book (on Jan 27th 2018) I discovered purely by chance that that this was the anniversary of Mahalia Jackson’s death in 1972 at the age of 61. As Harry Belafonte described her and the role of the Church in civil rights movement, she was likely a modern day saint: It had been Jackson who, as Martin Luther King was finishing his speech in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 (twice mentioned in the Rebecca) called out “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” There did seem a dreaminess about Blais’ Rebecca - a stream of consciousness about it even though there were many narrators in this story written sometime in the late 2000’s - and one can feel the presence of injustice, poverty, violence, anguish and to some degree the modern threat of terrorism.
There are four main voices. One is Esther, known as ‘Mere’, perhaps a matriarch, now in her mid-80s, with her friends / lovers like Suzanne, Caroline vanishing as the old do: I liked her presence as she seemed intelligent, kind, observant and reflective, opinionated but discrete in her opinions, who loved the arts and artists and her family, especially it seemed her granddaughter Mai. Mai’s the second main voice, and is the 14 year daughter of Melanie, a politician - perhaps even President of the country this mainly took place in - a teenager full of angst, going to school, dating a 18 year old who’s driving his father’s Mercedes and missing her too-often away mother and her similarly absent – albeit mentally– father, who is a self-preoccupied and somewhat frustrated writer. The third is Ari, an artist, separated with a daughter, who is travelling in Guatemala with his monk friend Ashok and in anguish over the misery he sees. The fourth is Tigli, my favorite, who happens to be on the same bus as Ari, and who is a fireman-midwife, possibly dying of AIDS, seated next to and helping a 14 year, impregnated and abandoned and on the verge of giving birth. There are other voices but it seems to be Mai, Mere and Tigli that give form and life to the story. Ari – like Augustino, Alphonso the would-be terrorist and perhaps much of the story – all are like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, in the background presaging doom, doom we are all doomed. Tigli though, possibly dying from AIDS, is radiant – full of life and full of the love of life.
I was intrigued by Blais’ treatment of Chuan. I liked her: she has a strong, reoccurring presence and has a few things we hear her say from time to time. She’s smart and ambitious, a good wife, a good mother, is ‘pretty in pink’ as the hostess at a major Christmas party, is a professional and very successful designer / architect for a developer of hotels / resorts and reads. She’s given though no voice: we never hear her thoughts. I think Chuan is from Hong Kong, and in Cantonese ‘Chuan’ means to simply pass through. I wondered amid the cacophony of Blais’ characterizations it almost seemed to have been Chuan who she was signalling out because of all the characters in the story – even joyous Tigli – she seemed paradoxically the embodiment of success but seemed asleep. Blais is quoted somewhere as saying ‘personally, I don’t like suffering. I prefer serenity. I am not at all a dark person …it’s just that so many of my friends seem to have an aptitude for suffering. … the world is a terrible place but we have the tools to change. We have just to wake up.’
I liked Blais’ writing: it seemed more poetry than novel, in the classic sense of what we expect from a novel. But nonetheless, what Blais has to say, her characterizations, the sense of drama, were real and as in the best stories stay in our minds and heads. I think she also had something important to say and said it well, in spite of the lack of punctuation.
Edwin
June 3, 2022
Another brilliant installment — but because of…, a certain… a portentous hint of coming darkness hangs over the proceedings.
April 27, 2013
Beautiful content. Exhausting format.
November 12, 2026
Marie-Claire Blais prosegue il flusso di pensieri che attraversa la mente dei suoi personaggi. Il flusso si concentra questa volta sulle vicende che riguardano: Pétit-Cendres, un ragazzo che vive ai margini della società e che frequenta giri di droga e prostituzione; Mai, una delle figlie di Melanie e Daniel, un'adolescente in fase di ribellione; Augustino, suo fratello, che ha pubblicato il suo primo romanzo con successo; Ari, un artista che ha lasciato temporaneamente la sua famiglia per intraprendere un'opera umanitaria in Guatemala a fianco del monaco Asoka; Rebecca, la figlia di Vénus; Mère, la madre di Rebecca che fa da collante ai vari nuclei di personaggi. Nuovo, fra i vari personaggi che entrano ed escono nel flusso, Alfonso, un prete cattolico, in crisi con la Chiesa stessa in quanto istituzione che mette a tacere, anziché punire, i casi di pedofilia.
I fatti principali della storia raccontata in questo volume si svolgono durante le festività natalizie e il romanzo termina con la festa organizzata per la notte di Natale.
Che dire... Non ci sono stravolgimenti rispetto ai precedenti volumi, ma se amate lo stile unico di questa scrittrice non potete non trovare la sua scrittura anche questa volta magnetica.
I fatti principali della storia raccontata in questo volume si svolgono durante le festività natalizie e il romanzo termina con la festa organizzata per la notte di Natale.
Che dire... Non ci sono stravolgimenti rispetto ai precedenti volumi, ma se amate lo stile unico di questa scrittrice non potete non trovare la sua scrittura anche questa volta magnetica.
October 30, 2020
This 4th installment of Soifs picked up the pace nicely after the somewhat placid 3rd book. The topic of racism is front-and-centre in this one, and it is an important read for 2020
October 10, 2014
J'ai été incapable de poursuivre ma lecture pour plus de 10 pages. Il n'y a aucun paragraphe, aucun point. C'est essouflant et difficile de comprendre l'histoire. Dommage!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews