New Releases by Marie-Claire Blais

Eight lesbian women strive to achieve an all-female utopia within which homophobia and their own pasts and differences are abolished.

Réimpression, 1989. Sur une île au large de la Floride, des femmes - peintres, actrices, romancières, professeures d''université - s''observent, se jalousent et sombrent souvent dans la solitude pour avoir tenté vainement de se comprendre. Comme le constate R. de Ceccaty, même si l''auteure varie peu ses sujets (le monde de l''homosexualité et celui des déshérités), elle a inventé un ton, un style romanesque qu''elle approfondit depuis trente ans et dont les principaux éléments sont la description impersonnelle et l''analyse monologuée. Un livre austère dont le thème central est l''amour lesbien (cf. la préface, p. 9-17). [SDM].

Night after night through the winter, in a club called The Underground, Genevieve and her friends live out their loves and their tragedies, apart from the day-to-day life of the city. Genevieve is a sculptor. Her idealistic love for a doctor cannot be returned but then she meets a new lover to whom she is able to give a new optimism and will to live. Genevieve, her lover, and her friends emerge from the dark winter into the spring sunshine. This novel, a best seller in its French edition, is rich in character and emotion. The quiet melancholy of Genevieve''s story is set against the lively, racy humor of her friends. The book has a vitality and optimism that will delight admirers of Marie-Claire Blais and bring her a wide new audience.--Adapted from back cover.

"A brilliant play about the maturation of evil". -- CHQM