Customer Reviews

Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec

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I saw a review of "Sacré Blues" in a Canadian newspaper (I don't remember which one) and decided that, since I was in Québec and frankly quite clueless regarding many aspects of Québec history and culture, I picked up a copy at an Archambault in Sainte-Foy. I had resolved to put it away for the return train trip to Toronto, but I started reading a little bit each night. At some points in the book I was laughing out loud so much my neighbours must have wondered about my sanity.

I spent a month in Québec and plan to return often, and "Sacré Blues" helped me to understand some of the issues in modern Québec. I have taken a Québécois civilisation course, but there are many topics in the book that elaborated on things we had touched on in class, such as Québécois winters, language, popular culture, famous people, the strange and fascinating addiction to cholesterol-laden food (poutine! May Wests! Pepsi!), tabloid newspapers, politics, the Floribécois (retired Québécois who migrate in droves to Florida every winter), Céline Dion, and much, much more.

Grescoe writes with tongue-in-cheek humour that sometimes amounts to laugh-out-loud guffawing, such as the Québec Language Police...something that I evidence firsthand. Some of the topics seemed to go on for much too long, but generally the book is funny and informative, sort of a mini-introduction to Québec. Very well written, with a glossary of terms and famous Québécois, important dates, and cultural notes.

For those with more than a casual interest in what the province of Quebec is all about, this book by multilingual Canadian journalist Grescoe is an excellent, evenhanded place to start. The twelve chapters do an admirable job of untangling the complicated web of ethnic, linguistic, political, and religious identities that make up Quebec. Grescoe gets things off to a quick start in the first chapter, providing a grab bag of examples of how the province is different from its Canadian and American neighbors: attitudes toward cheese, margarine, gun control, gay rights, smoking, the legal system, pornography, and more quickly get the point across. The chapter also establishes the tone for the rest of the book, as it ranges freely over the subject matter, sometimes doubling back, sometimes repeating itself, often employing statistics, but always in the service of trying to understand Quebec.

Chapter two has a brief history of the province's settlement, and quickly debunks the myth of the prevalence of "pure" francophone founders. This segues into an overview of Quebec's Jews, which leads to a discussion of recent immigration, and the whole notion of how a modern multicultural province can exist with a mythology of racial purity lurking in the background. Chapter three deals exclusively with the influence of France as a "mother country" which naturally leads to the next chapter, which is a lengthy examination of Quebecois French. Here, the author has an embarrassment of riches in terms of examples, however they are perhaps best appreciated by readers with a solid understanding of French.

Grescoe is a journalist, so it's not surprising that he devotes the entirety of chapter five to an exploration of the robust Quebecois print media. It's an interesting way of looking at a place, and not a lens one commonly encounters -- ultimately he concludes that as in many places around the world: "in Quebec, we're not likely to see serious coverage of issues that would threaten political and corporate power." It's a short hop from print to television, which is covered in the next chapter. Obviously television provides an interesting window onto a society and how it views itself -- especially in Quebec, where people watch more TV than in any other province. Grescoe dives right in, examining some of the popular genres and shows, as well as touching upon Celine Dion. The pop culture focus continues in chapter seven, which is a series of 21 brief profiles of Quebecois singers, writers, filmmakers, events, and stuff, most of which will be completely unfamiliar to outsiders (except for Circle du Soleil) but are well known in the province. It's cutely a good chapter to quickly dip into to get a sense of some of the differences discussed throughout the book.

In contrast to the relative lightheartedness of the previous chapter, chapter eight is about Quebec's native population (currently around 75,000 from 11 different Indian nations) and their grievances. As in the rest of the continent, Quebec's native population has gotten the shaft ever since colonizers first arrived. Grescoe talks to various tribal representatives, and an ironically unpleasant picture emerges of a province clamoring for the right of self-determination in order to escape external cultural and economic domination -- only to deny these very same claims by the native population. The next chapter discusses both the actual Quebecois winter and the idea of winter in the province's mythology. This naturally also involves a trip to Florida, where a huge number of retired Quebecois spend the harsh winter months.

Chapter ten is a good overview about the province's economy and business climate, including a visit to multinational transportation giant Bombardier. This is followed by a chapter about religion and change, more specifically about the shocking decline in practicing Catholics in the last forty years. Again, with remarkable evenhandedness, Grescoe finds a lot of good and bad in this cultural development. In many ways, it's a reflection of the same kind of cultural tug-of-wars that have gone on in the U.S. since the '60s, with many of the same tensions. The final chapter attempts to sum up Grescoe's three years of observing Quebec and perhaps unsurprisingly, for better and for worse, he sees increasing globalization as a erosive force on the province's distinct identity.

Grescoe's done a wonderful job of cutting to the core of things while keeping his writing lively and accessible. Each chapter is about a topic that would take an entire book to completely cover, and yet with a mix of on the scenes reportage, statistics, interviews with politicians, businessmen, intellectuals, artists, experts, and people on the street, Grescoe manages to avoid superficiality and present the complex issues. Although occasionally repetitive and cursed with an awful cover, it's highly recommended for anyone with more than a passing interest in Quebec, especially those intending to visit.

I have considered moving to Quebec and this book has made me both want to move there immediately and also be cautious about it - that's how evenhanded his writing is. I feel like I have learned a lot about the people of Quebec, more than one can learn from a travel guide or a history book. His writing style practically takes you there. If you are interested in learning about the real Quebec and can't go there yet, this is the next best thing. I highly recommend this book.

In my youth Quebec was a vast country of farms still plowed by horses. There were so many religious that priests and nuns did missionary duty in the States. Francophones were indifferent to British rule. Then, seemingly overnight, this quaint civilization collapsed. Pastures became golf courses. Couples bore their children out of wedlock. Francophones took charge of their culture and country. In 1995 their ballots came within a fraction of a percentage point of independence. The 60s and 70s saw this "quiet revolution" that knocked down doors already tottering in decrepitude. What an immense change in so short a time!

I have always been curious about francophone culture, but could never quite crack it. My travels to Canada were too infrequent and my schoolboy French worthless. Bilingual friends ignored contentious talk. Sacre Blues is the rare book that gets inside Quebecois culture and language. You will learn about the famous Bill 101, attitudes toward anglophones, allophones, Americans and French. Lots of tidbits about joual and Quebecois curses. All the significant artists, media people and industrialists get a few paragraphs. There are some interesting statistics about who learns French and who stays in the province long enough to perpetuate the language. It seems pretty evident that unless Quebecers boost their numbers, this distinct culture will only be studied by historians. Grescoe is an objective Canadian- bilingual and deft with prose. This book should be mandatory reading for any outsiders who venture north.

As someone from Montreal, I was originally pretty defensive about what some outsider had to say about Quebec. In the end, I think its a good book for anyone who's interested in the province but doesn't know that much about it. Ok it doesn't cover everything, and yes, sometimes its a bit lo-o-ong on details, but he does a good job of talking with/about key people (anglos francos and others) in the province, and addressing the main issues there. Whether you agree with him or not is another matter, but then I don't think the time has yet arrived where anyone will be able to write The Definite Book on Quebec that everyone will agree with.

I've never lived in Quebec - only visited briefly several times. I've always believed Quebec is a very different province from the rest but could never quite explain it to my fellow anglophones any better than my superficial experiences there. The author does an amazing job in explaining the depth of Quebec's culture and what makes it truely unique within Canada. It's not excessively historical or political but offers enough background on most aspects of the Quebecois to help the rest of us gain a better understanding.

I could not put this book down and I loved his writing style! Fun, informative and thought provoking. What more could you ask for? My grandmother was Quebecois but I knew nothing about Quebec and Canada. Now I feel like I have a pretty good basis for understanding and learning more about Canada and it's place in the world. A lot of his discussions he applies to the U.S. as well. He's mastered the interconnections between people, places, events and history and presents them so well.

The author has a nice turn of phrase, and a lovely sense of humor. But better yet, I found that it made my trip more enjoyable by putting a few things in context. I certainly wouldn't have recognized the poetry on my B&B door as coming from a beloved Quebecois poet without reading this book; or understood why TV sitcom writers enjoy enough prestige to have a little local shrine of newspaper articles dedicated to them.

DOn't you wish there were more books like these out there?! As a new Ontarian, I was curious to know what the province of Quebec was all about. We know that it has dished out poutine, Celine Dion and Cirque du Soleil, but there had to be more to it than that... Taras has brilliantly explained the nuances of what makes a Quebecker (and Quebec) tick, and it makes for a brilliant read. From "Moving Day", to "joual", to bringing your own wine to dine out, this will be my handbook on my next trip to Quebec.

To a casual eye, "Sacre Blues" reads as a rather fun collection of the idiosyncrasies of Quebec and the francophone population of Canada. While the book does indeed explore these often fun and always colourful parts of the culture of Quebec, Grescoe has a lot more depth here than is readily apparent. Though sometimes he gets a little long-winded, Taras Grescoe has put together a diatribe of note in "Sacre Blues."

More than just these fun facts (Such as where the nickname "Pepsis" came from, or just what the heck "Poutine" is all about), Grescoe gives the amateur reader a quick, and remarkably objective, overview of the Quebec history, and touches upon some of the most major issues to the francophone society. Everything is on display for Grescoe to discuss with grace, and not a little wit, from the sometimes hypocritical cry for being recognized as a "distinct society," to the treatment of its own provincial heroes (can we say anything negative about "Celine Dion" within the Quebec borders without fearing for our lives?).

An A to Z of Quebec (and literally, in one chapter, Grescoe does an A to Z of Quebec), this book is perfect reading for anyone who hasn't touched on Quebec before, but finds the enigmatic province of interest. This is not an anti-Quebec book, and it becomes readily apparent that Grescoe feels that without Quebec, Canada just wouldn't be Canada. It's an interesting point of view, and one he illustrates, and supports, quite well.