Un Parisien au pays des pingouins by Stéphane Ledien (review)

Ledien, Stéphane. Un Parisien au pays des pingouins. Saint-Laurent: Réverbération, 2012. ISBN 978-2-923844-90-9. Pp. 166. $23 Can. This first fictional work is a collection of personal reflections on the author’s initial five months of l’hiver québécois as a transplanted Parisian. Told with humor and a poetic touch, his accounts convey his enthusiasm for the snowfalls and winter activities of his new surroundings. Moreover, the narrator’s understated fascination with the Québécois makes him aware of his evolving adjustment to boreal North America, both interpersonally as well as geographically. Fueled by his successful relationship with his montréalaise fiancée Chérie, the first-person narrator, when outfitted in several layers of clothing and snowshoes or cross-country skis, ventures frequently outside to confront the elements, including sub-zero temperatures. Tongue-in-cheek, he details the return of his cowlick because of the famous tuque keeping his head warm in “L’épi sous la tuque: épicure.”The narrator likewise laughs at himself for not wanting to wear mittens like the local people, in“Applaudissements des mitaines,”in which he explains how he and the audience, wearing mittens at an outdoor music festival, expressed their appreciation for the band through their muffled applause. At times, his humor is even based on wordplay, as in “Bonnets de nuit,” in which the narrator muses on the different meanings of the word “bonnet” in Québec and in France, only to conclude wittily: “De deux choses l’une, donc: ou le Québec cultive l’esprit de contradiction, ou les Français tiennent à tout prix à montrer qu’ils gardent la tête froide” (81). The novel also characterizes the author’s poetic talent. For example, in describing the plows clearing snow from the streets, he refers metaphorically to “les blindés repoussant l’ennemi blanc-poudreux jusqu’aux abords des trottoirs où il s’entasse, vaincu, lessivé, avant les prochains renforts tombés du ciel”(12). The narrator similarly describes the aftermath of the latest snowy assault on Montréal as follows:“Avec ce trop-plein d’hiver blanc, Montréal avait les allures d’une ville de neige en ruine. Ou en chantier, au choix” (107). Underpinning the narrator’s humor and poetic bent is his curiosity about Québec’s native inhabitants. Whereas vocabulary and behavioral differences between the French and the Québécois serve as material for Ledien’s early accounts, his later reflections comment on his rapprochement with these Francophone Canadians. For instance, in “Rive droite, rive gauche, rive nord, rive sud,” the narrator compares the Left and Right Banks of the Seine in Paris to the North and South Banks of the Saint Lawrence in Québec, only to remark that he grew up in a French department with a social standing like that of the latter river’s“rive sud.”Subsequently, in“Histoire belge façon Terre-Neuve,” he explains that the Québécois poke fun at the Newfies just as the French joke about the Belgians: “Les Québécois ont leurs Belges [...] on est toujours le Belge ou la blonde de quelqu’un” (110). A third account,“Trappeur du dimanche,” further demonstrates the narrator’s growing emotional attachment to Québec and its people. Through his expression,“nos ancêtres les trappeurs,” he ultimately closes the gap between the French and the Québécois (70). University of Texas, El Paso Jane E. Evans 274 FRENCH REVIEW 87.1 ...