1953: Chronicle of a Birth Foretold

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Readers who associate Acadian literature with Antoinine Maillet’s
humble charwoman, the titular heroine of La Sagouine, should be prepared
to alter their perceptions. France Daigle, a writer for Radio-Canada’s
Moncton production centre, has emerged as the leading Acadian author of
her generation. Her latest work follows Real Life, a novel that has
established her reputation in anglophone literary circles.

Ostensibly the story of Baby M, a Moncton newborn whose life is
threatened by a digestive disorder, 1953 also covers such topics as
Stalin’s death and French author Roland Barthes’s ideas. One of the
present-day characters, Claude, is a masseur who in Real Life “met a
woman in a Berlin bar”—thus is a postmodern cocktail garnished with
a self-referential olive.

Daigle did not write this novel to serve her fellow Acadians, but she
nevertheless accomplishes that objective by introducing non-Acadians to
Acadian nurses and L’Evangéline editorials. She chronicles Acadian
struggles for cultural survival by pointing out that New Brunswick’s
francophone daily was a “shoestring” operation. She also notes that
in Moncton, Acadia’s metropolis, Acadians were fortunate to get
French-language films once a week.

Daigle’s attempt to place 1953 in it historical and other contexts,
combined with its complex structure, is a vote of confidence in her
audience. Through this novel, she takes Acadian literature to the next
level.