Many people, it seems, have a love-hate relationship with the place they come from. How many of us love Montreal for its culture, its multiculture, its art, but hate the crumbling infrastructure, the mismanaged taxes and the corruption? But would we live anywhere else? If we found old photographs of Montreal — photographs that would make us rediscover known places; places we stopped noticing a long time ago — would we fall in love with the city all over again? François is a successful architect in Paris. Like many people from Saint-Pierre et Miquelon — the French archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland — he left the islands after high school to study in France.
He comes back once in a while to recharge his creativity, but he never stays very long. During one of his visits, he connects with his best friends’ daughter, Émilie, a kindred spirit with whom he shares a great deal of sensitivity and introspection. They can almost read each others’ minds. One day, they discover photographs of Saint-Pierre et Miquelon taken before and after the Great War by docteur Thomas, a French military physician posted on the archipelago. Intrigued by what they sense from the photographs — the doctor’s love of the islands as well as sadness and despair — François and Émilie decide to find out who this docteur Thomas was.
Winner of this year’s Prix des lecteurs Radio-Canada, L’archipel du docteur Thomas is Françoise Enguehard’s third novel. A Saint-Pierre et Miquelon native who now lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Enguehard delivers a delightful book that allows readers to immerse themselves in a world they know very little about, even though it’s a mere 10 kilometres away from Canada. Not only is the story itself interesting, but the history of the archipelago, uncovered by the characters’ research, is fascinating, and the “Canadianness” of these French islands is particularly surprising. French as they may be, Enguehard’s characters still play hockey, build houses that withstand harsh winters and shop at large stores like Sears. These realities separate them from the French continent, which they also seem to both love and hate.
Enguehard’s writing is simple and straightforward yet somewhat poetic, pulling readers into the story and the beauty of the archipelago. Unfortunately, Enguehard (or her editor) italicizes words that aren’t common in standard French, i.e., words that have a particular French-Canadian meaning, which tends to be jarring. When inviting their readers into a new world, deft writers shouldn’t feel the need to explain words that are an integral part of that world. This habit of making French-Canadian words stand out pulls readers away from the story and breaks the magic.
Maudlin at times, L’archipel du docteur Thomas is nonetheless touching and compelling. If you don’t have the opportunity to travel this summer, don’t hesitate to take a short trip to Dr. Thomas’s archipelago.
Mélanie Grondin is a writer and translator whose work has appeared in carte blanche, Room, Nashwaak Review and other literary magazines. Mélanie is also associate editor at the Montreal Review of Books.
