Catherine Leroux
Author of The Future
About the Author
Image credit: Julie Artacho
Works by Catherine Leroux
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1979
- Gender
- female
- Country (for map)
- Canada
- Birthplace
- Rosemère, Quebec, Canada
- Places of residence
- Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Awards and honors
- John Glassco Prize for Literary Translation
- Short biography
- Catherine Leroux (born 1979 in Rosemère, Quebec) is a Canadian novelist who writes usually in French.Leroux was born in Quebec in 1979 and she took philosophy as her degree. She was the Toronto correspondent of Radio Canada.[1] She is a shortlisted nominee for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize for The Party Wall, a translation by Lazer Lederhendler of her 2013 novel Le mur mitoyen.[2]
Leroux's first novel, La marche en forêt, was published in 2011[3] and was a finalist for the 2012 Prix des libraires du Québec. Le mur mitoyen followed in 2013,[4] and was a finalist for the 2013 Grand prix du livre de Montréal and won the Prix littéraire France-Québec in 2014.[5]
She published the short story collection Madame Victoria in 2015.[6] The book won the Prix Adrienne-Choquette in 2016
Members
Reviews
The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux
The Party Wall initially appears to be structured like a collection of short stories, as in each chapter we are introduced to a pair of characters who share some form of connection, only to find out in a shocking twist that their relationship is not at all like what they thought it was. The first half of this novel dealing with the introduction to the characters and the plot twists was incredible; however, the second half unfortunately felt rather anticlimactic as it tried to resolve the conflicts established earlier on. The shock of the reveal ended up being more way enjoyable than the payoff of the resolution. The novel also loses power towards the end as it tries to clunkily connect all of the characters together in a way that felt a little too obvious. Though the second half didn’t work for me, I’m still glad I picked this one up because I genuinely had a lot of fun reading the first half. I’ll be curious to pick up some more Leroux in the future!… (more)
This book has garnered lots of attention thanks to winning the annual Canadian book debate, Canada Reads. It probably helped that the defender was Heather O'Neill, a well-regarded Canadian writer, but it was up against some tough competition. So I was anxious to read the book when it became available from my public library.
At one point this book was referred to as being magical realism which made me twitch a little since I frequently have problems relating to books of magical realism. Fortunately, the magical elements of the story (a fairy, buildings that reconstruct after demolition, vegetables that revert to seed and so on) aren't important to the story and I enjoyed them. In this book Detroit never became part of the United States and remained a French-speaking city in Canada. But like the real Detroit it suffered from urban decay, pollution and extensive drug use. Gloria, a widow, has come to Fort Detroit to look for her grandchildren after her daughter, Judith, was murdered. Cassandra and Mathilda called in the murder but then they disappeared. Someone saw them heading to Rouge Park with full backpacks but there's been no sightin of them since. Gloria starts to get to know the people of the neighbourhood, especially her neighbour, Eunice. She finds that people help one another here which is good since the government seems to have abandoned them. Soon there is information about a band of children living in the forest in Rouge Park and Gloria reaches out to them hoping they will have news of her granddaughters. These are feral children who either are orphaned or running from abuse. They have a rough kind of community with older children looking out for the younger and everyone scrounging for food or other useful items. They don't want anything to do with the adults but when an emergency comes along some of them are sheltered and cared for by those adults. This results in a truce which will have an impact on everyone in the community.
There's a hopeful message here. Together, with good will, people can overcome adversity and find solutions. We need that kind of messaging now.… (more)
At one point this book was referred to as being magical realism which made me twitch a little since I frequently have problems relating to books of magical realism. Fortunately, the magical elements of the story (a fairy, buildings that reconstruct after demolition, vegetables that revert to seed and so on) aren't important to the story and I enjoyed them. In this book Detroit never became part of the United States and remained a French-speaking city in Canada. But like the real Detroit it suffered from urban decay, pollution and extensive drug use. Gloria, a widow, has come to Fort Detroit to look for her grandchildren after her daughter, Judith, was murdered. Cassandra and Mathilda called in the murder but then they disappeared. Someone saw them heading to Rouge Park with full backpacks but there's been no sightin of them since. Gloria starts to get to know the people of the neighbourhood, especially her neighbour, Eunice. She finds that people help one another here which is good since the government seems to have abandoned them. Soon there is information about a band of children living in the forest in Rouge Park and Gloria reaches out to them hoping they will have news of her granddaughters. These are feral children who either are orphaned or running from abuse. They have a rough kind of community with older children looking out for the younger and everyone scrounging for food or other useful items. They don't want anything to do with the adults but when an emergency comes along some of them are sheltered and cared for by those adults. This results in a truce which will have an impact on everyone in the community.
There's a hopeful message here. Together, with good will, people can overcome adversity and find solutions. We need that kind of messaging now.… (more)
In this speculative novel, Detroit is an independent, French-speaking entity. Urban decay has led to run down homes, few services and little employment. Children have taken refuge in the forest, banding together to secure safety and shelter. When our protagonist, Gloria, arrives following the murder of her daughter, she finds her granddaughters missing and goes into the forest to find them. This is a grim story, but there is a hopefulness in the way so many characters persevere and band together to support each other.
It's well written, and the characters are reasonably well developed. Just not my cup of tea.… (more)
It's well written, and the characters are reasonably well developed. Just not my cup of tea.… (more)
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 6
- Also by
- 4
- Members
- 233
- Popularity
- #96,932
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 7
- ISBNs
- 31
- Languages
- 2