Douglas Glover has written the story of a French girl who went to Canada, gave birth to a fish, turned into a bear and fell in love with a famous author. Based on a little-known incident from Canadian history, Elle chronicles the adventures of Sieur de Roberval's wayward 19-year-old niece who was set ashore in 1542 (during Jacques Cartier's ill-fated third and last attempt to colonize Canada) as a punishment for lasciviousness, along with her old nurse and tennis-playing lover.
A lusty Rabelaisian riff on the discovery of the New World that has been described as a "mad creation myth dreamed by a French Eve." Elle is a libidinous 16th-century society belle turned Robinson Crusoe ... she takes on the Canadian winter with little more than a tennis racket (for whacking sea birds over the head) and a trunk full of ball gowns ... and survives.
2 comments:
Thanks for posting about this book. I've never heard of the author before but that picture plus your description makes it sound like a must-read.
when we were in Cow Head a few years ago, the Gros Morne Theatre Festival was presenting a stage performance of Elle in French ... alas we missed it by just one day
the poster and cast photos were still up in the lobby, and books were being sold
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