Que ne suis-je Catulle (en ces presque 80 poèmes) par Jude Stéfan (review)

expression can sometimes denote a softer, gentler teasing. In Locas’s novel, it is Geneviève’s snobbery that is critiqued: “Le Québécois n’est pas un Franco. Alors qu’il se pense roi du continent, une partie de son royaume s’est décrochée au fil des décennies et fait aujourd’hui fi de ses airs de supériorité” (55). The identity of the French Canadian in the Francophone world, among the Canadian Anglophones, and the perception of Francophones of urban Quebec by other Canadian French speakers, bring the question of the survival of the French language into a contemporary framework. The key to survival is to be open to outsiders rather than to retreat in isolation. Thus, the journalists of the Francophone paper publish articles that maintain optimism without rocking the boat. Bureaucracy and ineffectual committees that accomplish nothing are critiqued for their non-productivity, but also provide jobs and give the appearance of Francophone activism. The defeat of the separatist Parti Lys is not a disappointment to the characters in the Franco-M region, since a less radical political party could create better relations between Francophone and Anglophone Canadians. In this environment of external passivity, Geneviève learns that, in its own way, French is thriving. The phonetic and semantic variations of the French language that appear in La maudite Québécoise range from the rolling accent of the Franco-M to the nasal accent of the Québécois, to the mitchif (a mixture of French and Scottish words), and the Breton vocabulary used by one of Geneviève’s colleagues. This versatility and adaptability confirm the survival of the French language on the North American continent. Although Locas satirizes all of the characters, she still gives preference to the FrancoM , writing that the entry to la francophonie in America may be through Quebec, but that the Franco-M are better interpreters of both language and lifestyle. The novel is intended to be Geneviève’s thoughts on what she hears and reads during her sojourn. She explains that writing is her means of survival during her stay. The style varies from narration to snippets of dialogue, interspersed with quotations from poems and songs, but it is rather flat and dull, much like Geneviève. The structure of the entries is also problematic. The first half of the novel, L’Arrivée, places the entries in chronological order. In the second half, Le Départ, the reverse chronology does not indicate Geneviève’s anticipated departure , but simply returns to the onset of her departure to the region. She explains that this structure intends to show “qu’il ne se passe jamais rien” (167). Her friend asks Geneviève why she does that, and points out that this may frustrate the reader to the point of throwing the book into the garbage. But the protagonist turns a deaf ear, and, unfortunately, so does Locas. Although the topics she broaches are worthy of study, the author fails to take a clear stand on them, or to give them the importance they deserve. Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Nathalie G. Cornelius STÉFAN, JUDE. Que ne suis-je Catulle (en ces presque 80 poèmes). Paris: Gallimard, 2010. ISBN 978-2-07-012749-8. Pp. 102. 16,50 a. This rich, strange, and singularly compelling book of farewells from one of France’s major poets continues his anti-lyrical stance with hefty doses of cynicism and baroque, erudite inventiveness. Dense, dark, allusive, sardonic, Stéfan’s acid gaze seeks to wear down age-old poetic structures so that distinctly different 224 FRENCH REVIEW 85.1 ideas and forms might rise to the surface, even taking pleasure in announcing his disappearance from the literary scene. The title ironically compares the zeal of Catullus and Stéfan for confronting a gamut of emotions in raucously crude, precise , knowing terms, while also making light of the latter’s inability, according to a peremptory “Sorbonagre” (11), to equal the former’s renown. Stéfan wastes no time, however, presenting his own antagonistic viewpoints, with his usual flair for chiseled forms, daring juxtapositions, and forthrightness both caustic and touching...