Three by Three

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French studies at the University
of Guelph.

Three Quebec women writers, three short stories each. Sensitively and
energetically introduced by Luise von Flotow, these women are of the
generation following that of Nicole Brossard, Louky Bersianik, and
Jovette Marchessault. They are easier to read, and funnier, and less
detached from the men whom they satirize.

Internationally known Ann Dandurand revels in fantasy. She writes of
Dianas purusing the male with cruel precision and vengeful eroticism,
and brings to mind Christiane Rochefort, the older French writer, who
also expressed anger and fantasy simultaneously. Dandurand’s twin
sister, Claire Dé, is both more political and more romantic. Yet she
also writes texts that, when taken seriously, might be judged as being
vicious or even pornographic. Hélиne Rioux deals with fantasies that
obsess ordinary men. One wants to be a torturer and killer, another
wants to write and produce plays. They search “for something which
invariably disappears just when [they are] on the point of reaching
it.” They are angry at women, who, they think, prevent them from
pursuing their dreams.

Though disturbing, Three by Three introduces the anglophone reader to a
new form of writing that has emerged in Quebec. Von Flotow is to be
congratulated for impeccable translations that do all three authors
justice.