Press release
February 25, 2008
Author Norman Beaupré writes a sequel to La Souillonne
The
dramatic monologue, La Souillonne, was such a tremendous success for
its author, Norman Beaupré, that it prompted a friend of his
to say, "There must be a follow-up to this." The author
replied that he had not thought about it and that he did not think
he had enough material in his creative imagination to write a sequel.
However, after seeing the performance of the play twice at the Franco-American
Heritage Center in Lewiston and seeing it again in Lamèque,
New Brunswick this past summer performed to a sell-out crowd, he began
to sift ideas in his mind especially once he heard sea stories by
the performer, Marie Cormier's brother, Angelbert Paulin who had caught
fish and crabs out in the open seas for some forty years. Beaupré
now had at his disposition some materials about Acadians and the sea.
He then set out to line up other topics such as, the snoops [les écornifleuses],
the famished and the tell-it-alls [les défoncés et les
paniers parcés], WWII and the ration [la ration et la guerre],
the melting pot, the shoe shops, odd people [les gens de travers],
old habits [les accoutumances] and our way of speaking [le parlement
de not'e monde].
So many people identify
with the character of la Souillonne and her situations in life as
well as with her recalling moments she lived through because they
lived the same experiences a long time ago and share the same values
as the main character. Besides, the book is written entirely in the
Franco-American dialect, the "language of the people." It
has been a real challenge for the author since this dialect is essentially
an oral language and Beaupré had to find a way in replicating
the sounds into the written word. The subject matter, the main character
and the written dialect make this a unique work.
This is Norman Beaupré's
9th book: a bilingual one on folk art, five in French and three in
English. He's already on his 10th work, a novel based on the artistic
life of Vincent Van Gogh in Arles.
ISBN: 978-1-59526-693-4
Paperback
Format: 6 x 9 in - 224 pages
Language: French
Published by Llumina
Press.
Soon to be
available in paperback at Amazon.com.
