From the Bookshelf of Gentle SPECTRUMS…

The Tin Flute

Gabrielle Roy

Start date: January 23, 2018

Finish date: January 28, 2018

Discussion: Gentle Spectrums 2018!

Why we're reading this: This matches Canadian, music, and history.
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Gentle Spectrums 2018!

Gentle Spectrums - General
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last updated Dec 07, 2018 10:12AM

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Jan 28, 2018 C. (Comment, never msg). rated it liked it

Shelves: riedel-titles-2018

I am of two poles like Gabrielle Roy: Winnipeg-born, with everything we needed but our parents struggled. I encountered one distant resemblance to the Lacasses of “The Tin Flute”, the most destitute family about whom I've read. Not hitting the right career and financial plan in the beginning, was like a tire that kept puncturing, a black hole. Throw money at the Lacasses and it got sucked up. One of the reasons this award-winning début receives three stars from me, is disbelief that the Father a I am of two poles like Gabrielle Roy: Winnipeg-born, with everything we needed but our parents struggled. I encountered one distant resemblance to the Lacasses of “The Tin Flute”, the most destitute family about whom I've read. Not hitting the right career and financial plan in the beginning, was like a tire that kept puncturing, a black hole. Throw money at the Lacasses and it got sucked up. One of the reasons this award-winning début receives three stars from me, is disbelief that the Father and children did not earn money somehow. A catholic place like Montréal in 1945 was ripe for babysitting! The Mother worked but was too often pregnant. That she was run ragged at home, I don't accept. No kids did dishes, cleaned, or cooked? She wouldn't ask her Mother or brothers for help?

The other reason for moderately grading an admirable, complex literary coup is that we never like the eldest daughter, Florentine. Gabrielle gives voice to everyone's thoughts, even the awful Jean Lévesque, whom Florentine asininely wanted to impress because he wasn't a lover's type. When a story solidifies, after a few chapters of snapshots, she and her Mother are the protagonists. We loathe her sons Eugène and Phillip and Emmanuel would be an adorable beau, if he wasn't as stupid about love as Florentine, in his own way. He becomes her husband, even though his friend, Jean attracted her by being the first to kiss her. We want Florentine to wizen up, whom we admire as her family's sole breadwinner! WWII sees the poorest still reeling from the 1930s. Going to war in aid of England in France, well before Americans, provided jobs and family allowance cheques.

The most poignant example of a negative being a boon is Daniel in a hospital. His Mother saw him with colouring books, blocks, and a tin flute he wanted; thinly-matched English title of “Bonheur D'Occasion”. He received in one day, more toys than he ever had. Imagine a hospital being superior to a home life! In their rental homes, one or two kids had rooms, everyone else slept on cots, stowed by day. I forgive Florentine vanity about how she appears and dresses, after doing without. I was too young to remember this film, shown in my French school. It abounds in great discussion fodder, grasped best by adults. I only recalled that it was grim and dreaded reading it all these years. I am happy to discover that it is a highly readable story, that carries you along, outside of unlikeable characters. It concludes with hope, growth, and improvement. However the original title's meaning is more apt, for a book that isn't about music. It means: “occasional happiness”. ...more

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Jul 07, 2012 Margaret marked it as own-and-someday-read · review of another edition

Shelves: roy-gabrielle

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Apr 27, 2022 Kerri marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: canadian

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