A Thing of Beauty

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French Studies at the University
of Guelph. She is the author of Courts métrages et instantanés and La
Soupe.

This story of a mother and her son is prefaced with an excerpt from
Frida Kahlo’s journal: “Anxiety, pain and pleasure and death are but
one single way of existing.” This sentence perfectly describes the
intuitive world-view of Albertine and Marcel. They love to eat, drink,
and be merry, yet at the same time experience anxiety and pain and must
witness death while on the road to their own.

Why this novel was not nominated for a Governor General’s Award when
it was first published in French, in 1997, is a mystery. Tremblay is a
master of language and atmosphere. We empathize deeply with his
characters, and we reap the benefits of his wide knowledge of
linguistics and the arts. Sheila Fischman’s sensitive translation is
wonderfully assured. With each successive work, it becomes increasingly
clear that Michel Tremblay’s legacy will be a lasting one.