Girls Closed In

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

Luise von Flotow must be considered one of the finest translators of
Québécois fiction into English. Her most recent translation, Girls
Closed In, tells the story of a shy, unsociable 16-year-old girl who is
registered as a boarder in a Catholic teachers’ college in Montreal
some 50 years ago, and who is deeply involved in discovering who she is.
For her, “the joy of learning is tied to learning introspection.”
But introspection leads to confusion and darkness.

The novel’s protagonist, whose name we are never told, will marry,
have a daughter, go through a divorce. Toward the end of the tale, we
learn that she has a friend called Danielle with whom she manages to
“share a similar existential space.” The two of them are careful
with each other, because “friendship is made up of air and fire.”

This beautifully translated novel awakens its readers to “the dark
side of things.” I consider that to be a healthy exercise.