Putting Down Roots: Montreal's Immigrant Writers

Carol A. Stos is an assistant professor of Spanish at Laurentian
University.

Putting Down Roots offers a fascinating look at the rich and varied
voices and languages of the immigrant writers of contemporary Montreal.
There are writers of Italian, Haitian, Hungarian, Chinese, Arab, and
South Asian origin, as well as writers who work in Yiddish or Spanish,
many of whom also write in French and/or English as well as in their
mother tongue. Although language is the overarching theme, history,
politics, memory, exile, identity, and multiple loyalties also inform
the interviews that make up this volume. In the interviews, the
writers—Marco Micone, Mary di Michele, Chava Rosenfarb, Yehuda Elberg,
Joлl Des Rosiers, Ramуn Guardia, Alfredo Lavergne, Gyцgy Vitéz, John
Asfour, Bhagwan Gidwan, and Ying Chen—recount the events and passions
that have shaped both their lives and their writing.

There is a selected bibliography at the end of each chapter. Too often,
the sidebars that appear throughout the book merely repeat information
provided in the chapter introductions or interviews themselves.

In producing this collection, Naves has made a valuable contribution to
the literature on Canadian immigrant literature.