Pleure pas, Germaine

Pleure pas, Germaine

Pleure pas, Germaine (1965), by Claude Jasmin, one of the most accessible and poetic contributions to "the joual debate" in the French Canadian novel, narrates the journey of Gilles Bédard and his family from Montréal to Gaspé. Escaping from drink and debt, hunting the rapist who killed his daughter, and visiting his wife's parents, Gilles is caught between the desire for revenge and his innate capacity for love. He is freed by a case of mistaken identity in a dénouement that blends New Testament imagery with political engagement. Reflecting Gilles's point of view, the narrative is structured around the names of rest-stops on the journey of discovery, using JOUAL to communicate the complex predicament of a simple man. The title, a line from Roger LEMELIN's Au pied de la pente douce (1944), associates the novel with earlier experiments with joual.