Fragile Lights of Earth

by Gabrielle Roy

Book by Roy, Gabrielle

Genres: Nonfiction, Canada, Autobiography

222 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Gabrielle Roy was born in March 1909 in Saint-Boniface, Manitoba, the youngest of eleven children. Her mother and father, then, were relatively old at the time of her birth -- 42 and 59 respectively. Like Christine's father in Rue Deschambault (Street of Riches), Léon Roy worked as a colonisation officer for the Department of Immigration, a position he held between 1897 and 1915. His politically motivated dismissal occurred six months before his retirement, thus leaving Roy with no pension to support his family. The family's financial predicament during Gabrielle's youth precluded any chance of her attending university, despite having earned stellar marks throughout high school which put her as one of the top students in the entire province. In 1927, after graduating from grade twelve, she enrolled at the Winnipeg Normal Institute where she completed her teacher training.

After teaching in the rural communities of Marchand and Cardinal, where she taught for a year, Roy returned to Saint-Boniface. There she accepted a teaching job at the Académie Provencher boy's school, a position she held from 1930-37. During this period, Roy began actively pursuing her interest in acting and joined the Cercle Molière theatre troupe. Her experiences as an actor inspired her to leave her teaching position and travel to Europe to study drama. Spending between 1937 and 1939 in Britain and France, the fluently bilingual Roy studied acting for six months before concluding that she did not desire to pursue a career in the theatre. In the meantime, she had also begun to write articles about Canada for newspapers in Paris and pieces on Europe for newspapers in Manitoba and came to realize that writing could be her vocation.

Over the course of her lengthy and prolific career, Gabrielle Roy received many honours, including three Governor General's Awards (1947, 1957, 1978), the Prix Fémina (1947), the Companion of the Order of Canada (1967), the Medal of the Canada Council (1968), the Prix David (1971), and the Prix Molson (1978).

Reviews

[Daniel Grenier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Il y a toujours eu un petit côté édifiant chez Gabrielle Roy, qui ici touche presque à la propagande canado-américaine (le dernier texte sur l’Expo 67 est carrément une commande promotionnelle) et fait sursauter par endroits. Mais cette « vision » grandiose, presque autotélique, aujourd’hui éculée de la colonisation et de l’immigration, elle nous permet d’y accéder à travers le prime d’une subjectivité qui reste engageante.

Le court récit de la folie entourant la réception à Paris de son prix Femina pour Bonheur d’occasion vaut en soi le détour.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of magazine articles and essays written over a few decades, from the 1940s to the 1970s. Gabrielle Roy covers everything, from immigrant communities in Western Canada to her visits in France, from reflections on her own literary status to reflections on Montreal's preparations for the World Fair commonly known as Expo '67.

Her account of how she won the prestigious Prix Femina in Paris for her famous novel Bonheur d'occasion is quite humorous; she pokes rueful fun at herself while nonetheless satirizing the self-interest of some of the committee members who were furiously debating who should receive the prize. And her musings on Expo '67 (whose motto was Terre des Hommes or Man and his World) include commentary on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry who inspired the title and some prophetic words about the trends of progress (not all of them entirely positive).

All in all, the pieces gathered here are reflective, highly observant and written with great feeling for her fellow human beings.

[Max Mars · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le terme étranger
Personne l'est ou on l'est tous
Injure à l'humain