In an Iron Glove: An Autobiography

Naomi Brun is a librarian assistant in Communications and Community
Development at the Hamilton Public Library and a book reviewer for the
Hamilton Spectator.

Claire Martin is a pioneer in the French-Canadian literary world. Born
to a strict Catholic family in 1914, she was brought up by a tyrannical
father and uncompromising nuns, who tried very hard to suppress little
Claire’s spirit in their own brutal way. The author’s narrative
voice was largely shaped by her awful childhood experiences. In fact, in
1966, she received the Governor General’s Award for the second volume
of her autobiography, La joue droite. In an Iron Glove is the English
translation of both volumes, reprinted with a new introduction.

Martin claims her father was a tiger and her mother a dove. Her father
had been married before, and was left a widower with a sick child. A
local curate thought Claire’s mother would be the right person to
parent this boy, so he approached Claire’s father and he accepted. It
never was a marriage of love, but children came all the same, including
little Claire. Her father beat them all and her mother was too gentle to
effectively stand up to him. Later, when Claire went to school, the nuns
continued the physical and verbal violence. Claire’s maternal
grandparents provided some comfort, but she was not allowed to see them
as often as she liked.

In an Iron Glove is reason enough for the Quiet Revolution to have
happened. It depicts a world of narrow-minded, ill-informed bullies at
the hands of the patriarchy and the Roman Catholic Church. Martin’s
autobiography provides a strong, clear argument for the social reform of
those two Québécois institutions, and anyone with a heart could not
help but wish for that after reading this book.

Martin was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984, and promoted
to Companion in 2001.