2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Suzanne by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette.

Pages: 265 pages

Length: 1 month (March)

Participants: Valerie, Lorraine

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

Hi Lorraine, I have this so whenever you are ready let me know. No rush! We have all month.

Hello Valerie. What about Monday?

Perfect. Looking forward to it.

By the way I’m still not getting notifications even though I’ve tried signing out over night. I’ll try again tonight- maybe it only updates at the weekend? At the moment I’m relying on checking my profile to see any updates so might be a delay. I do get notification when you message directly though.

It took a few times to work for me but maybe you are right and they do the maintenance on the weekend. I'll message you directly until then

I'm not sure why I waited so long to read this book! I borrowed it from my cousins—I think two years ago—and you're the one who finally got me to read it! Ahaha. I'm learning so much about people I had only heard of, a time in history I knew little about, and even my own city. I love it!

(view spoiler)[Suzanne is such an interesting character, especially for that era. You know, on my father's side, there were ten children, and on my mother's side, twelve. So when I read about Suzanne’s mother not wanting to have 10 or 11 children, I immediately thought of them—those poor women, pregnant all the time. My father’s mother was even denied communion at church because, after ten children, she told the priest she didn’t want any more! Incredible. (hide spoiler)]

I’m guessing this may be as sad as Medicine Walk in its own way, at least for the writer’s mother and it struck me when I was reading the introduction how different the attitude is to a woman who abandons her child compared to a man. How much more harshly they are judged. Especially when I consider that she would be exactly the same age as my mother.
I read the chapter on her childhood and I’m assuming that she is basing it on facts but recreating and inventing the detail around them. It’s an interesting parallel to the stories told by my mother about her own childhood in the same era. She came from from a family of six and they were always short of money. Although it was actually a financial benefit when my grandfather was sent to France.
Certainly enjoying it so far! Her writing is very vivid and engaging. Glad you are learning things - it’s all new to me of course.

Notifications is working again and my profile updated.

I’ll finish this tomorrow for sure.I really like this story.

Finished. This turned out to be a fascinating read even though I was not familiar with the names or places. Suzanne made me think of the Neil Young song ‘Like a hurricane’, a force of nature equally creative and destructive. I thought the author recreated the time as skilfully as the person so the two were swept along together and made sense. It’s hard to make you care about someone so essentially self centred without betraying the truth, but I think she manages. An excellent read.

I was surprised by how much I liked La femme qui fuit. Reading about a woman who abandoned her children wasn’t something I was particularly drawn to, but in the end, like you, I really enjoyed it.

I found it fascinating to learn more about the group behind Le Refus Global and the impact it had on Québécois society. History tells us that this manifesto marked the beginning of Quebec’s Révolution tranquille, a time when our society decided we no longer wanted the Church in our schools, our homes, and—most importantly—our bedrooms.

This story made me reflect on how the clergy and politicians treated those who thought or acted differently. Many members of this group ended up in poverty, unable to find work because of their beliefs.

I also really admire the painters Borduas and Riopelle, so reading about them was an added bonus!