The Sound of Living Things

Susan Manningham teaches sociology at Queen’s University in Kingston.

Йlise Turcotte was born in Sorel, Quebec, in 1957 and studied French
literature at the Université du Québec а Montréal. She is a
well-known poet and twice has won the Prix Йmile-Nelligan.
Surprisingly, this is her first novel. I say surprisingly because for a
first novel the quality of the writing is both mature and assured. It
says much for Sheila Fischman’s translation that the elegance and
tenderness of the original shine through in this magical tale of a
mother and her little girl.

Albanie, who is 30, and her four-year-old daughter, Maria, are on their
own. Albanie’s work at the local library allows her and Maria to share
a life of the imagination. From the aspects of life they explore
together, there emerges a love story unlike any other I have read. The
relationship between mother and daughter is both brilliantly charted and
shot through with an overpowering sense of love, which transcends the
particular and extends into the very images, speech, and living objects
that make up this remarkable book. Turcotte goes out of her way to
attempt to express the inexpressible. She does this by using the
acuteness of her vision to discover the poignant details of everyday
life between mother and daughter. Far from making the book ephemeral,
this perceptive eye for detail strongly connects the story to the real
world and to the sounds and living images which exist within it.

The Sound of Living Things achieves a perfect blend between the
sentient and the intellectual, and in doing so allows us to connect with
one of the best of a new generation in Quebec writers.