Marie Laberge

This book came to me highly recommended by a colleague, who lent me her copy. I'm afraid I kept it for several months. This is one LONG book! It was only halfway through that I realized part of my problem in reading it wasn't the content but the format. It's 600 pages and a trade-sized paperback borrowed from a friend. So I was being careful not to break the spine and there were only a limited number of ways I could hold the book. Carrying it around to read on the bus became a no-no after a show more day or two of doing so made me see it was damaging the book. So all this to say that format-wise, this was a difficult book.

Now as for the content, that is another story. This really was a good book. This is the story of Gabrielle, starting in 1930, at which point she is in her late-20s, married, and has 5 pre-school children. The story is told from her perspective. Characters include not only her immediate family, but her siblings and their families, especially her two sisters, Germaine, and Georgina, as well as Georgina's two husbands (the first one passes away) and two daughters. And, of course, there is Florent and the rest of the Garyepie family, who are care-takers at the summer house. Gabrielle's eldest daughter, Adelaïde, and Florent, are the focus of the other two volumes in the trilogy, which I've yet to read.
This book is a description of the day to day life of all these people, their relationships, their feelings toward each other and the events of their lives.
Gabrielle is a good woman. She, of course, believes in the teachings of the Catholic church but even goes above and beyond with her charitable works. As time goes on, she becomes more concerned with what is right rather than what the Church says is right.
This is also very much a love story between Gabrielle and her husband Edward. It is the story of a happy, loving marriage in an time and place where this is a rarity. Gabrielle is also a head-turner, and catches the eye of many another man (of course, she is completely oblivious to any of this). This also becomes a love story of how another man longs for her silently for years on end.
For the first two thirds or so of the book, the author takes us through a detailed account of at least a few event each year. Then the pace changes. Time goes more quickly and the only mention of a whole year is through one letter written by Gabrielle. The perspective shifts as well, as the for the last few years, leading up to the Second World War, the story is told from Adelaïde's perspective rather than Gabrielle's. I did not particularly appreciate this shift in timing and perspective. Adelaïde will get her own full volume; why is it necessary to give her the last part of Gabrielle's? This to say, I was not thrilled with the ending. I felt as though the author had written much more that got removed by a lazy editor who chose to just take big chunks out of the end.
I enjoyed the book because the language was as rich as the characters. show less

A historical soap opera. Well-researched--and worth reading for the historical and social context--but as a novel I wished it weren't so obviously plotted to tug on the heart strings. More melodrama than realism. The characters are types rather than people.
I will continue to read the next two books in the trilogy because I'm interested in the times and milieu that Laberge writes about.

C'est le premier livre de Marie Laberge que je lis. Bonne histoire. Le suspense est bien mais pas assez pour me tenir en haleine mais bon livre à lire.

Le troisième tome (que j'ai lu aussi d'une traite) est un tout petit peu moins prenant que kes deux premier! Normal, l'auteur s'essoufle je crois!! Mais quad même très chouette!!