The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange

Quebecois author Marie-Claire Blais may be the best writer I had never heard of, if her 1969 novel The Manuscripts of Pauline Archange is a good representation of her work. These are the writings of young Pauline, the oldest daughter of a poor family in what I am guessing is mid-century Montreal. Her world is a world of rules that are almost always broken, neighbors who live too close, a sick and disapproving mother (who deep down is very much like Pauline herself), passionate friendships, clinging Catholicism, and a desire to experience and create art that her circumstances seem destined to deny. Written with an adult sensibility and frequently slipping out of Pauline's mind into the dialogues and thoughts of those around her, this is show more a fever dream of a book that conjures a rich portrait of Pauline and her world. Not sure how it reads in the original French, but this translation is complex and surprising, just like Pauline herself. show less