Novel
Plainsong
Cantique des plaines
Nancy Huston · 1993
Synopsis
Alberta. Paddon has just died, at nearly ninety. His granddaughter Paula inherits his scattered writings and sets out to tell his life by addressing him. The son of pioneers settled on Indian land, Paddon taught history at a high school in Calgary, married the pious Karen, let his rages fall on his children and dreamed all his life of a book about time, which remained in fragments. He also loved Miranda, a Métis woman who showed him the other side of the settlers' history.
Context
The book was first written in English and rejected by several publishers; the author rewrote it in French, and it is this version that first found a publisher, Actes Sud in Arles and Leméac in Montreal, in 1993, the year in which Plainsong also appeared in Toronto. The Governor General's Award for French-language fiction was given to it that same year, then contested on the grounds that it rewarded a translation; the author regards each of the two versions as an original.
Who it is for
A novel of medium length, addressed from beginning to end to a dead man. One must accept this continuous use of the familiar “you”, which is the very device of the book.
Prizes and reception
The 1993 award was contested; in English Canada, the parallel version went almost unnoticed, according to Books in Canada.
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