The novelist, playwright and poet Marie-Claire Blais has died. She was 82 years old.
The artist agency Goodwin, which represented her, confirmed the sad news Tuesday evening.
Born in October 1939 in Quebec City and from a modest family, the author published her first novel, “La Belle Bête”, at the age of 20. Immediately noticed by critics and the public, she then received a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation at the suggestion of the famous American critic Edmund Wilson.
Her best-known novel, “A Season in the Life of Emmanuel”, written in 1966 in the United States, propels her into the pantheon of great writers.
Set at a time when Quebec was still plunged into darkness, the novel revolves around Emmanuel, the last-born of a large family, raised by a grandmother who was omnipresent in the paternal home. Around him evolve his brothers and sisters as well as his parents, characters who refuse to live in misery despite poverty and disease.
With violence and a raw language that was brand new for the time in Quebec, the plot of this novel will leave indelible marks in the imagination of its many readers. The story of the twisted relationship between this ugly young woman and her young brother, simple-minded but exceptionally beautiful, serves as a springboard for a panoply of emotions. Critics will even speak of nameless savagery, hence the astonishment experienced by readers given the young age of the author.
This novel, translated into ten languages, is one of the most widely read Quebec works in the world. More than 2000 books, theses, articles, reviews and interviews have been written on the novel “A season in the life of Emmanuel” and the multiple interpretations of it by literary criticism represent a tribute to the complexity of the novel.
In addition to twenty novels published in France and Quebec, all translated into English, Ms. Blais has also written six plays and collections of poetry.
Thirsty to write
Marie-Claire Blais has never stopped writing during these sixty years of career. In 2018, she put an end to the monumental cycle Thirsts, a series of 10 novels that began in 1995.
She also underlined in To have to in 2012 the importance of writing. “We live in a very tumultuous world, full of both joy and sorrow; there are so many events, a confusion of events, that to clarify all that to give the pulse… it is complex. It’s a bit like that, the idea: to give the pulse of what we live today, from the point of view of a novelist, of a poet. You need poetry; it is essential for it to become luminous. Poetry is essential to describe the complexity of our time. “
A writing job that she never took for granted, she continued, always in this interview. “And despite the time, the experience, when you write books, you are always in doubt. “
In addition to the prestigious Medici, the author has accumulated honors including the Belgium-Canada Prize in 1976 for all of her work, the Athanase-David Prize in 1982, the Prince of Monaco Prize in 2002, the Gilles-Corbeil Prize. from the Émile-Nelligan Foundation in 2005 for a body of work, the Matt-Cohen Prize from the Writer’s Trust of Canada in 2007, awarded for the first time to a French-speaking writer.
In addition, she has received a large number of scholarships which have helped her to devote herself to her work as a writer.
Quebecer in exile
Rather shy, Marie-Claire divided her time between Key West, Florida, Melbourne, Estrie, and Montreal.
She shied away from the spotlight, but was very generous in interviews as well as with her fellow writers. She has participated in numerous juries, including that of the Robert-Cliche Prize for a first work.
She was for several years the companion of the painter of American origin Mary Meigs, who died in 2002.
A Quebecer at heart, Marie-Claire Blais remained a nomad and a convinced activist of the Francophonie.
“Marie-Claire was one of our greatest national treasures,” commented author Michel Tremblay shortly after the announcement of the death.
Its publisher, Boréal, joined the eulogy concert on Tuesday evening. “Marie-Claire Blais not only made a deep mark on Quebec and Canadian literature, but she also rose to the forefront of Francophone writers of her generation. […] She leaves a rich and abundant work, composed mainly of novels, but also addressing many genres, theatrical pieces, radio, poetry, essays, which are characterized by its formal audacity and by a very particular attention to marginal, downgraded, rejected beings. “
With The Canadian Press