The narrator Francis is
preoccupied with French language and someone using an English substitute for a
word bothers him, and he claims English is Not a Magic Language. A reader on
demand, Francis' life is based on simplicity but also on dreams1,2
and characters of his imagination.
1.
My dream froze on one final image: the woman was
in the prow of the sailboat that was rounding the headland of the Île d'Oléron,
heading for the Gulf and old Europe.
2.
When life creates problems, I sometimes indulge
in dreams.
One evening an unknown woman
calls Francis for a reading appointment at her apartment. But the mysterious
absence of the woman troubles him and draws his curiosity. His brother Jack is
a novelist and working on a French American historical novel, something he
wanted to be like an epic, but owing to his old age and reclusive nature, and also
a failing memory, his brother the narrator Francis and little sister are
helping him with his maneuver.
Francis' listener includes a
convalescing young girl Limoilou, a sick child and a girl in coma at the
hospital. He cares how his reading influences the listeners and changes them. So,
he is very selective about what he reads to his clients. He is particularly
sensitive to what he reads to Limoilou who has a troublesome past. Jack gives
Francis a journal written by explorers Lewis and Clark, resource he himself
used for his novel, and Francis reads the journal to Limoilou for her great interest and enthusiasm. Being deeply inspired by French historical3 and
cultural value in America, narrator often draws from his childhood with references from music, sports and books, and recalls how he developed fondness for
reading.
3. As
for me, I was thrilled to note that the explorers' route is sprinkled with
French names. Names of villages, forts, waterways, hills—but also travellers, guides, adventurers,
fur traders. Their names are Loisel, Dorion, Laliberté, Lepage… Their names
sounded familiar and I uttered them with particular respect because they had
been forgotten by history.
The story alternates between
Francis' search for the absent woman, his dreams and childhood memories, love
for his sister, brother, Limoilou and Marine and his reading sessions. The
fondness for French occupation in America, the journal of explorers Lewis and
Clark, his dreamy withdrawal to popular figures from players to writers,
impressions of his father, and all the things shaping him suggests that the narrator
lives in simplicity however also in unreality, he is someone found in
transition . He tries to motivate himself and keep his inspiration intact,
and is cautious to make himself and people around him happy. One theme of the book
may be social and historical awakening in a person just like in Francis who is
struggling to live in peace and dignity. A French American consciousness
permeates the novel, and the story of formation of Canadian nationality is in subtlety.
History, adventure, love, celebration of reading and the essence of simplicity
imbues English is Not a Magic language. The story establishes a New Life.
Author: Jacques Poulin
Translator: Sheila Fischman
Page Count: 140pp
Price: $17.95
Photo Credit: http://www.nuitblanche.com/actualites/le-livre-des-memoires/attachment/jacques-poulin/
Review Copy Courtesy: Vehicule Press
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