Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec

by Taras Grescoe

Book Overview

Winner of the 2000 Quebec Writers' Federation First Book Award and the Mavis Gallant Prize for Nonfiction A hip, enlightening portrait of a place most Canadians find baffling: Quebec without the politics. Why do three million Quebecers tune in the same absurd sitcom every week? How did they get the nickname "pepsis"? Why does Celine Dion put on a down-home accent when she returns to her home province? For referendum-weary English Canadians, Quebec...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1551990814
• ISBN13: 9781551990811
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Macfarlane Walter & Ross
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.2" x 0.9" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Even Better Than Being There

In my youth Quebec was a vast country of farms still plowed by horses. There were so many religious that priests and nuns did missionary duty in the States. Francophones were indifferent to British rule. Then, seemingly overnight, this quaint civilization collapsed. Pastures became golf courses. Couples bore their children out of wedlock. Francophones took charge of their culture and country. In 1995 their ballots came within a fraction of a percentage point of independence. The 60s and 70s saw this "quiet revolution" that knocked down doors already tottering in decrepitude. What an immense change in so short a time! I have always been curious about francophone culture, but could never quite crack it. My travels to Canada were too infrequent and my schoolboy French worthless. Bilingual friends ignored contentious talk. Sacre Blues is the rare book that gets inside Quebecois culture and language. You will learn about the famous Bill 101, attitudes toward anglophones, allophones, Americans and French. Lots of tidbits about joual and Quebecois curses. All the significant artists, media people and industrialists get a few paragraphs. There are some interesting statistics about who learns French and who stays in the province long enough to perpetuate the language. It seems pretty evident that unless Quebecers boost their numbers, this distinct culture will only be studied by historians. Grescoe is an objective Canadian- bilingual and deft with prose. This book should be mandatory reading for any outsiders who venture north.

Outstanding Overview of Quebec

For those with more than a casual interest in what the province of Quebec is all about, this book by multilingual Canadian journalist Grescoe is an excellent, evenhanded place to start. The twelve chapters do an admirable job of untangling the complicated web of ethnic, linguistic, political, and religious identities that make up Quebec. Grescoe gets things off to a quick start in the first chapter, providing a grab bag of examples of how the province is different from its Canadian and American neighbors: attitudes toward cheese, margarine, gun control, gay rights, smoking, the legal system, pornography, and more quickly get the point across. The chapter also establishes the tone for the rest of the book, as it ranges freely over the subject matter, sometimes doubling back, sometimes repeating itself, often employing statistics, but always in the service of trying to understand Quebec. Chapter two has a brief history of the province's settlement, and quickly debunks the myth of the prevalence of "pure" francophone founders. This segues into an overview of Quebec's Jews, which leads to a discussion of recent immigration, and the whole notion of how a modern multicultural province can exist with a mythology of racial purity lurking in the background. Chapter three deals exclusively with the influence of France as a "mother country" which naturally leads to the next chapter, which is a lengthy examination of Quebecois French. Here, the author has an embarrassment of riches in terms of examples, however they are perhaps best appreciated by readers with a solid understanding of French. Grescoe is a journalist, so it's not surprising that he devotes the entirety of chapter five to an exploration of the robust Quebecois print media. It's an interesting way of looking at a place, and not a lens one commonly encounters -- ultimately he concludes that as in many places around the world: "in Quebec, we're not likely to see serious coverage of issues that would threaten political and corporate power." It's a short hop from print to television, which is covered in the next chapter. Obviously television provides an interesting window onto a society and how it views itself -- especially in Quebec, where people watch more TV than in any other province. Grescoe dives right in, examining some of the popular genres and shows, as well as touching upon Celine Dion. The pop culture focus continues in chapter seven, which is a series of 21 brief profiles of Quebecois singers, writers, filmmakers, events, and stuff, most of which will be completely unfamiliar to outsiders (except for Circle du Soleil) but are well known in the province. It's cutely a good chapter to quickly dip into to get a sense of some of the differences discussed throughout the book. In contrast to the relative lightheartedness of the previous chapter, chapter eight is about Quebec's native population (currently around 75,000 from 11 different Indian nations) and their grievances. As in the re

Great book!

I've never lived in Quebec - only visited briefly several times. I've always believed Quebec is a very different province from the rest but could never quite explain it to my fellow anglophones any better than my superficial experiences there. The author does an amazing job in explaining the depth of Quebec's culture and what makes it truely unique within Canada. It's not excessively historical or political but offers enough background on most aspects of the Quebecois to help the rest of us gain a better understanding.

A fantastic look at Quebec

I have considered moving to Quebec and this book has made me both want to move there immediately and also be cautious about it - that's how evenhanded his writing is. I feel like I have learned a lot about the people of Quebec, more than one can learn from a travel guide or a history book. His writing style practically takes you there. If you are interested in learning about the real Quebec and can't go there yet, this is the next best thing. I highly recommend this book.

Québec in a nutshell...

I saw a review of "Sacré Blues" in a Canadian newspaper (I don't remember which one) and decided that, since I was in Québec and frankly quite clueless regarding many aspects of Québec history and culture, I picked up a copy at an Archambault in Sainte-Foy. I had resolved to put it away for the return train trip to Toronto, but I started reading a little bit each night. At some points in the book I was laughing out loud so much my neighbours must have wondered about my sanity. I spent a month in Québec and plan to return often, and "Sacré Blues" helped me to understand some of the issues in modern Québec. I have taken a Québécois civilisation course, but there are many topics in the book that elaborated on things we had touched on in class, such as Québécois winters, language, popular culture, famous people, the strange and fascinating addiction to cholesterol-laden food (poutine! May Wests! Pepsi!), tabloid newspapers, politics, the Floribécois (retired Québécois who migrate in droves to Florida every winter), Céline Dion, and much, much more. Grescoe writes with tongue-in-cheek humour that sometimes amounts to laugh-out-loud guffawing, such as the Québec Language Police...something that I evidence firsthand. Some of the topics seemed to go on for much too long, but generally the book is funny and informative, sort of a mini-introduction to Québec. Very well written, with a glossary of terms and famous Québécois, important dates, and cultural notes.