Volkswagen Blues

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Volkswagen Blues
OCLC
17173838

Volkswagen Blues is a

French-Canadian writer Jacques Poulin, his sixth, originally published by Québec-Amérique
in 1984.

Inspired by the writings of Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation poets, some of whom appear in the book's later chapters, the novel explores the American landscape and cultural history from the vantage point of the open road, using writers, historical figures, popular music and art as tropes to orient the reader and tell the story of America.

Plot

Volkswagen Blues begins with its

Métisse woman, nicknamed "La Grande Sauterelle" due her long, grasshopper-like legs, as a travel companion, as well as a cat
named Chop Suey.

Together in Jack's

Kansas City and the American West along their way, exploring the history of European contact with the native people of the Americas. While on the road, they discuss language, literature, music, expansionism, the Oregon Trail, etc., and their trip becomes an allegory for the history of the French exploration of North America. At the same time, La Grande Sauterelle, who is struggling with her own identity, presents another version of American history, as recounted by indigenous peoples, where "discovery" is viewed as "invasion." Throughout the episodic novel a number of interesting and entertaining characters appear, including journalists, museum directors, railroad hoboes and writers such as Saul Bellow and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, as well as the spirit of Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Hemingway, John Muir and the Beat Generation
.

Jack's journey through an America that scholar

Paul Socken
describes as a "lost paradise" is one of disillusionment and self-discovery that allows him to break through the impasse he had met in his writing.

Reception

Volkswagen Blues was nominated for the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction at the 1984 Governor General's Awards and was one of the selected novels in the 2005 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by author and former National Librarian of Canada, Roch Carrier.

Volkswagen Blues was individually cited when Jacques Poulin was awarded the Prix Gilles-Corbeil (informally known as the "Nobel québécois").

Translations

Volkswagen Blues was translated into English by Sheila Fischman and published by McClelland & Stewart in 1988 and subsequently re-issued by Cormorant Books in 2002.

See also

  • Paul G. Socken, The Myth of the Lost Paradise in the Novels of Jacques Poulin. Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 1993.
  • Anne Marie Miraglia, L'Ecriture de l'Autre chez Jacques Poulin. Editions Balzac, 1993.
  • Roger Hyman. "Writing against Knowing, Writing against Certainty; or What's Really under the Veranda in Jacques Poulin's Volkswagen Blues": Journal of Canadian Studies 34.3 (1999).
  • Jean Morency, et al., Romans de la route et voyages identitaires. Québec: Nota Bene (collection "Terre américaine"), 2006.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Volkswagen_Blues&oldid=1139379260"