Pierre Salducci
A prolific author from the fifties to two thousand, Bertrand Vac is one of the writers who contributed to the advent of modern Quebec. An attentive observer of his time, he is often critical of social conventions, defending in particular sexual freedom and the freedom to love. The recent reissue of his river-novel À mon only desire in digital book allows us to rediscover the importance of his thought and his work.
An emblematic figure of Quebec’s cultural world of the 1950s and 1960s, Bertrand Vac had probably the longest literary career in the history of the country, with no less than 60 years of writing and publishing. Republished several times in paperback, it is today considered a classic of Quebec literature. His immense and varied work is distinguished by its audacity and its humor. He has published fourteen titles, including seven novels, three short stories, and received no less than four prestigious literary awards. Praised by some and shouted at by others, Bertrand Vac has known the classic fate of those who think otherwise and do not hesitate to question matters. Different, offbeat on just about every subject, he was admired by unconventional minds, but misunderstood by others, which earned him some sidelining. Despite everything, more than ten years after his death, we still have to admire the accuracy, sensitivity, impertinence and originality of his writings and his words.
A great friend of women and a feminist before the hour, champion of beauty in all its forms, Bertrand Vac was far from being insensitive to homosensuality. For a long time he dated several famous homosexual figures to whom he was very close. Remained single all his life, which made him all the more suspicious in the Jansenist Quebec of his time, he never ceased to fiercely claim his independence, refusing to sacrifice his way of life for anyone. Throughout his work, Bertrand Vac defends the freedom of thought, the freedom to love and sexual freedom. So many themes that can be found in her latest novel, To my only desire, both a historical fresco and a family saga, which covers the life of her heroine from her 16 years to her 50 years and which has just been reissued. in digital version. Almost 25 years after its first publication, this often surprisingly free-flowing novel has lost none of its strength and evocative power.
Presented as a completely new approach in all of Quebec literature, À mon only desire offers an absolutely unique painting of the Montreal upper middle class at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, its way of life, its dramas and its passions. But much more than a perfectly reconstructed historical setting, it is above all a powerful romantic adventure, with many twists and turns, which follows the course and the evolution of a woman of heart, endearing and determined, against a backdrop of premiere. world war, economic crises and the advent of modernity. A story rich in discoveries and emotions, which takes the reader into an unsuspected and captivating world.
At my sole desire, Bertrand Vac
Culture Commune Editions, $ 8.99