Roxanne Dubois

Roxanne Dubois is a union activist, reader, and writer based in Toronto. Every Friday, she publishes an email newsletter called vendredi français which shares original writings and francophone content from all over the web.

Read and subscribe at http://www.vendredifrancais.ca or catch her on twitter at @roxannedubois.

Book review: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Book review: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

It seems unbelievable that Zora Neale Hurston was almost completely forgotten as an important African-American author of the 1930's. And yet, her best known novel, Their eyes were watching God, had to be dug up from the archives as late as the 1970's and 1980's, where it spent far too much time unread and unappreciated. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the classic, providing an excellent opportunity to engage with the prose and substance of Zora Neale Hurston's writing.

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Middlemarch by George Eliot

Middlemarch by George Eliot

For a Franco-Ontarian who has mostly read in French her entire life, certain English classics have always felt out of reach. George Eliot's Middlemarch, for example, which spans the imposing length of just under 900 pages, is not a book I would have picked up just for the sake of it. Its length should not put anyone off, though, since Eliot's writing has the ability to take the reader on a long, excursionary journey well worth travelling.

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Book Review: Just Kids by Patti Smith

Book Review: Just Kids by Patti Smith

Patti Smith has had a long, creative life as a singer-songwriter, poet and visual artist. In Just Kids, she writes the memoir of her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. She dives back into the New York City of the 1960's and 1970's when both of them were young, emerging artists and just getting started in their life-long artistic journeys.

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Critique: Chanson douce de Leïla Slimani

Critique: Chanson douce de Leïla Slimani

Littérature inspirée d'un fait divers, Chanson douce a bien été reçu et reconnu par la critique en France. Le deuxième roman de l'auteure et journaliste Leïla Slimani a remporté le Prix Goncourt en 2016. Dès les premières pages, le dénouement tragique est connu du lecteur. La suite du livre tentera de déconstruire les mois précédents, ce qui donne une lecture intense et haletante.

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Les Contes des Mille et une Nuits

Les Contes des Mille et une Nuits

Quel bonheur de s'immerger dans l'univers médiéval des Contes des mille et une nuits, cet imaginaire auquel la culture populaire et littéraire nous a rendus si familiers! Le lecteur averti peut entreprendre la série des 40 contes au complet, mais il existe aussi de nombreuses compilations qui présentent une lecture condensée et essentielle.

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Critique: Les Années d'Annie Ernaux

Critique: Les Années d'Annie Ernaux

Voilà plusieurs livres d'Annie Ernaux dont je fais la lecture. Je cherche en quelque sorte à me familiariser avec l'œuvre de cette auteure pour qui l'écriture est à mi-chemin entre le mémoire et l'autofiction. Dans Les Années, Ernaux a comme point de départ des photos d'elle à différentes étapes de sa vie. Elle les passera une par une, faisant état de sa situation personnelle et des préoccupations du monde à cette époque.

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L'Art d'aimer d'Ovide

L'Art d'aimer d'Ovide

Nul meilleur temps que le mois de février pour plonger dans l'une des œuvres phares du thème de l'amour. Ovide, poète antique, s'amuse en offrant un manuel de l'amour et des règles de base de la séduction. Reçue à l'époque comme un ouvrage subversif, cette prose est une représentation joyeuse et même drôle d'un thème vieux comme la terre.

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Citizens' Press revisits great works of literature

Citizens' Press revisits great works of literature

It is widely said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. While this should be obvious to any modern society, these times require us to never take for granted some of the most basic assumptions. As we seek answers to understand the increasingly divided, unequal, and unpredictable world we live in, going back in time and space is a good place to start. It seems more appropriate than ever to revisit great classics of literature, to soak in the world order that once was in order to understand the context and conflicts of today.

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Book Review: The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Book Review: The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue was born in Ireland and now lives in London, Ontario. Her last book, Room, was a hit and made into a film for which she also wrote the screenplay. It was the story of a woman and her son being held captive in a man's shed: not the most uplifting subject and yet told with lightness and might. Her most recent book, The Wonder, builds on a different theme: an eleven-year-old girl in the Ireland of the 1850's stops eating for religious and spiritual reasons. Here too, Emma Donoghue treats a dark topic with so much grace.

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