American Notebooks: A Writer's Journey

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

We all have heard about writers carrying in their pocket or bag a
notebook that will enable them to scribble down moments or encounters of
importance. Marie-Claire Blais has turned this practice into an art
form; 51 of her notebooks, spanning the years 1963 to 1990, are like a
wide canvas onto which she has recorded four decades of politics,
literature, visual arts, and social movements.

Why American notebooks? Well, this Quebec writer has spent a great
number of years in Cambridge, Mass., in Cape Cod, and in Key West. She
draws vivid portraits of intellectuals, social activists, musicians,
painters, critics, publishers, and many others ranging from the
well-known to the neglected. The Vietnam War, the civil-rights movement,
the fight against AIDS—in this book we become witness to the
progression not just of an individual but of a collective conscience.
There are personal episodes also; sometimes a love affair, a good or a
not-so-good marriage intrigue the observer.

Sensitively translated by Linda Gaboriau, American Notebooks is history
and storytelling by a first-class writer who understands the importance
of art and thought in a world that believes the artist to be of minor
importance.