It's All About Books
So it does not look as if I will ever post the details of my Hawaiian trip because it’s been over a month since we came back and I still have yet to finish writing it up… Oh well, it was a great trip and I have (or had) a tan to show for it.I sort of lost track of the books I have read this year… I think this is right:
- ‘Vinegar Hill’ – A. Manette Ansay
- ‘Birds of a Feather’ – Jacqueline Winspear
- ‘When the Emperor Was Divine’ – Julie Otsuka
- ‘Beggars Banquet’ – Ian Rankin
- ‘ A Recipe for Bees’ – Gail Anderson-Dargatz
- ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell’ – Susanna Clarke
- ‘The Eyre Affair’ – Jasper Fforde
- ‘Deep End of the Ocean’ – Jacquelyn Mitchard
- ‘Volkswagen Blues’ – Jacque Poulin
- ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ – Sue Monk Kidd
- ‘Edge of Evil’ – J. A. Jance
I have just signed up to write book reviews for an online book review site (thanks to Yuka telling me about it). As part of the signing up process, I had to send in a sample of a review I have written. So I wrote one for ‘Volkswagen Blues’:
Title: Volkswagen Blues
Author: Jacques Poulin
Translator: Sheila Fischman
Publisher: Cormorant Books (June 2002)
Reviewed by: Anne-Gigi Chan
A 40-year-old French-Canadian writer from Montreal set out to find his long lost brother, whom he had not seen for 20 years. The only trace he had was a 15-year-old postcard from a small town in Quebec. At the beginning of his quest, he picked up a hitchhiker, a young Métis girl. Together, driving an old Volkswagen minivan, they traced the footsteps of the French explorers from the St. Lawrence to St. Louis, Missouri and then headed west along the Oregon Trail. This turned out to be a journey of self-discovery as well as a history lesson for the writer where he learned about the plight of the Native Americans through the eyes of a Métis.
With translated work, one has to wonder how much of the style of the writer actually came through in the translation. Regardless, this English version was a really nice, easy read where I was drawn into the narrator’s quest very quickly: Where did the brother go? What happened to him and what became of him? However, it was very clear soon into the book that the process of how one reaches a goal is often as, of not more, rewarding as achieving the goal itself. This book was short-listed as one of five books in CBC’s Canada Reads program in 2005. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in exploring Canadian literature or who just wants a good read.
I am now reading a Soho Crime book called Bloodhounds by Peter Lovesey. He is a mystery writer who wrote a series of books featuring Inspector Peter Diamond and this is the first time I read his work… we will see if I will become a fan.
posted by Anne-Gigi @ 6:51 PM
1 Comments:
I wonder what Sheila Fischman reads for fun?
I've started to read Volkswagen Blues by Jacques Poulin. Set in the Gasp�sie region I'm heading east with Poulin, up and around the hilly roads, out toward to blue water. My memories of my only road trip to Gasp� are blue � the colour blue. Memory plays tricks on us but when I think of this beautiful region in Quebec I think of the colour blue and so many of our family photos feature the coastline villages with the water backdrop. With the except of a few pictures of us standing under wind turbines on wind farms, most of the pictures are of my little family posing at the vast shore. Blue.
I didn't get far in the book before I flipped it closed to consult the cover. I'm reading the translation by Sheila Fischman. I'm not sure why I picked up the English instead of the French original. Poulin's style is fluid and an Anglophone with a fair grasp at French can follow along swimmingly. I don't know if it is fair to describe his style as old fashion story telling but that is my impression - not too many confilicts, not to much word play, lots of imagery, lots of physical description, slow introduction to the characters who might turn out to be secondary to the facts in the story. The story has a lovely cadence. Now I have to ask myself: is this because Poulin is a great storyteller or is it because Sheila Fischman is a great storyteller?
You'll remember Sheila Fischman as the translator that introduced much of Anglo Canada to the works of Roch Carrier, Michel Tremblay, and Anne H�bert. She has shared the voice of over 125 works by Canadian Francophones, in particular Quebecers... with the rest of Canada. In May 2008 Fischman was presented with the Molson Prize recognizing her outstanding lifetime contributions to Canadian cultural. The $50,000 Molson prize will buy her A LOT of books.
I wonder what type of books Sheila Fischman takes to the cottage, curls up by the fire with, and piles beside her bed To Be Read later? On the other hand, maybe Sheila Fischman doesn't read for pleasure at all. Maybe it feels too much like work.
Maybe she writes. When a translator gets paid to interprete and convey to words of others, are they ever tempted to put pen to paper to craft their own prose?
I'm going to ask my translator Gis�le Lamontagne and my copy editor Jos�e Prud'homme. While they adapted Dining with Death into La Mort au menu I never once in the entire process asked either of them what it was about their craft that drew them in, enabled them to polish the rough bits so that the diamond sparkled through of any given piece by any author.
How does someone develop the skill to make another artist look good, in a completely different language?
If you see Sheila Fischman at the next awards gala, ask her for me.
Kathleen Molloy, author - Dining with Death / La Mort au menu
www.diningwithdeath.ca
www.lamortaumenu.ca
www.kathleenmolloy.offo.ca
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