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Francine Diot-Layton

BLUE MET

Blue Met Notes II

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Some final thoughts on the Blue Met 2012

by Francine Diot-Layton
25.04.2012

Bilingual cities do not exist, as the word implies equality, and languages are in constant movement. Example, Montreal, currently moving toward being more French. Multilingual is a more accurate label, applicable to Montreal at various times: Yiddish, Italian, Spanish etc.

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BOOKS

Morning After

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The First Day, by Marc Levy, McArthur & Company

by Francine Diot-Layton
11.09.2011

It was on a lazy summer morning that I started to read Marc Levy’s The First Day, looking forward to “the most-read French author in the world,” according to Wikipedia, whose “combined worldwide sales of his ten novels, translated in 42 languages, have achieved the 23 million copy mark.”

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BOOKS

Suffer the Children

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The Meaning of Children, by Beverly Ackerman, Exile Books

by Francine Diot-Layton
11.07.2011

Elsewhere, expansive imagery pulls the reader in: “Orthodox Jews, they always travelled in packs. In fact, if you stood before their dwelling places and narrowed your eyes just the right way, you could almost make out the flapping tents and, nearby, the camels, squinting into the sun…” Notice the impeccable use of the second person. I caught myself squinting.

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BOOKS

Chocolate Mousse and Sexy Waitresses

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Wandering Souls in Paradise Lost, by Hélène Rioux, Cormorant Books

by Francine Diot-Layton
07.03.2011

Of the many paradises Hélène Rioux explores in Wandering Souls in Paradise Lost, she omits one: settling down by the fire on a cold winter’s night with a good book. With Wandering Souls – the second of planned tetralogy “Fragments of the World,” the accomplished award-winning poet, translator and novelist (Wandering Souls is her seventh [...]

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BOOKS

Navigating the Franklin Expedition in Fiction

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On the Proper Use of Stars, by Dominique Fortier, McClelland & Stewart

by Francine Diot-Layton
26.12.2010

The original French version of Dominique Fortier’s first novel On the Proper Use of Stars burst onto the literary scene, becoming a finalist for several 2009 French Canadian literary awards, including the Governor General’s.  Thanks to Sheila Fischman’s translation, English readers can now savour the superb recounting of Sir John Franklin’s 1845 expedition in search [...]

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BOOKS

Throwing Off the Yoke of a Good Education

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Such a Good Education, by France Théoret, trans. by Luise Von Flotow, Cormorant Books

by Francine Diot-Layton
11.07.2010

The definition of literature has blurred over time, but it once included an exceptional writing style and a universal theme, preferably dealing with a current social issue. France Théoret has produced such a work in her latest novel, Such a Good Education. It is a powerful exposé of the so-called good education young women were subjected [...]

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BOOKS

It Is The End of the World

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Wednesday Night at the End of the World, Hélène Rioux, trans. Jonathan Kaplansky, Cormorant Books

by Francine Diot-Layton
15.02.2010

The End of the World is a taxi driver hangout that serves turkey dinners every day and where a group of regulars meets every Wednesday night to play cards. It is from this mundane restaurant that Hélène Rioux takes us all over the world, with people from all walks of life, on a snowy winter [...]

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