Travel Tips

I felt something was missing from my homepage as there was nothing to reflect my biggest passion: literature. I learned how to read when I was only 3 years old, when my mom, an elementary school teacher, got tired of me asking her to read stories all the time. As a kid growing up in a small town far away from all the big cities, reading was a bit like traveling, for it felt like if I wanted to be in Prince Edward Island, all I had to do was to pick up my copy of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables.

It seems like I've read through my entire childhood and teenage years, and ultimately I've gone on to complete a master's degree in English literature at Laval University, where I spent six amazing years learning from the best and kindest professors, sharing ideas with great students and making life-long friends while completing a thesis on the English novel in Quebec.

To reflect the importance of books in my life, I've decided to create a reading diary. I'll try to update it as often as possible, feel free to e-mail me if you want to discuss some of those books!

A few years before his death, when Jack Kerouac was at the height of his popularity, he made a trip to France in search of his ancestors. He never quite found them, but he did find the inspiration to write Satori in Paris. The best way I can describe the feeling I had while reading this novel was to be sitting in an old pub, having a pint with a slightly drunken Kerouac who was telling me all about his latest adventures in Paris. This short tale is filled with humour and although Kerouac often gets side-tracked, he always manages to get back to the core of his story. Another thing I found quite fascinating was Kerouac’s use of “joual”, or Quebec French, at a time when Quebec authors hadn’t begun using it. I thought it was a really great read, and I did find Kerouac a whole lot more amiable than Sal Paradise, his On the Road alter ego.

On my recent trip to Ireland I went on the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl, which started with two actors playing the opening scene from Samuel Beckett’s "Waiting for Godot". I’d been wanting to read this play for a really long time, and I enjoyed their short performance so much that I came back from Ireland determined to get my own copy. When it was first performed in France, the play created quite a sensation: people either loved it or hated it, but one thing’s for sure, they all wanted to see it! For my part, I absolutely loved it. Often absurd, always funny, "Waiting for Godot" can be read as a light distraction or as a deeply meaningful play. Simply brilliant!

Accused of having criticized Stalin’s policies, Alexander Solzhenitsyn spent 8 years in Soviet labour camps. Although it should not be considered as an autobiographic novel, there is no doubt that the Russian author drew heavily on his personal experience to create this story, which was published in 1962 under Khrushchev. Although parts of the novel were censored, it was still the first book ever published in the USSR to paint an honest and accurate picture of life in the labour camps. The reader is invited to spend one day in the company of Ivan Denisovich, and share with him the highs and lows, the joys and sorrows of a political prisoner. It was for me a fascinating – though much too short - excursion into a world I knew very little about.

My recent trip to Dublin put me in the mood to read more Irish literature and since Oliver Goldsmith’s "She Stoops to Conquer" is one of my favourite plays ever, I was looking forward to discovering what "The Vicar of Wakefield" had to offer. I was immediately pleased to see that Goldsmith’s wit and incredible sense of humour translated well into the novel form. The story itself is pretty farfetched but I don’t think it’s meant to be taken seriously – as with his plays, Goldsmith mostly meant to entertain his audience and there’s no doubt that he succeeds in doing so in this novel, while bringing to life the characters, manners and social conventions typical of 18th century Irish countryside.

It's hard to tell if I would have enjoyed this book quite as much if I hadn't just been to Chicago for the first time a few months ago, but I'm pretty sure I would have appreciated Larson's non-fiction book for what it is: a masterfully crafted book that allies well-researched facts with Larson's uncanny storytelling skills. For a few days I found myself walking through the mysterious and exciting streets of Chicago around the time of the 1893 World's Fair, and met some of the men and women who have changed history, for better or for worst. As soon as I finished it, I went looking for "Isaac’s Storm", Larson's book that deals with the hurricane that devastated the city of Galveston, Texas, in 1900. I guess that's a good sign, right?

This was my second time reading a book by David Sedaris - a while ago I'd come across "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim" and absolutely loved it, so I was thrilled to finally get my hands on "Me Talk Pretty One Day". My expectations were pretty high, and I wasn't disappointed! My favorite parts of the books were the stories that dealt with Sedaris's childhood and then with his life in France. Sedaris has such an infectious sense of humour and a talent for self-deprecation that never goes overboard - the way he writes even his most intimate and shameful stories, we can't really take pity on him, we can only shrug and laugh with him!

I can't even remember how many times I've read this novel! I do remember reading it for the first time in high school, then again as a university student, and then several times for sheer pleasure. It is such a complex, multi-layered novel that the story tends to change everytime I read it. If I was once fascinated by the violent passion raging between Catherine and Heathcliff, I later learned to appreciate the pure, simple and yet powerful love that unites Cathy and Hareton. Although I'll always prefer Jane Austen's style to that of Emily Brontë, I bet that neither "Pride & Prejudice" nor "Wuthering Heights" will ever gather much dust on my bookshelves...