The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant
By Michel Tremblay
Genre: Fiction
My first encounter with the genius that is Michel Tremblay came in the theatre while watching Les Belles Soeurs and from the moment the curtain rose. His characters are quirky and often very witty, they are women that you wish you shared a neighborhood. Once the “BINGO” scene happened I could do nothing but love Tremblay and his cornucopia of Quebecois women.
The next time I encountered Tremblay it was a beautiful tribute to his mother that passed away before she had the opportunity to any of Michel Tramblay’s works enacted on the stage. For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again is a stellar work of art that shows a man’s love for his mother. Since seeing this show I’ve wanted to read a novel composed by Tremblay. If you ever get the opportunity to see anything by Tremblay take it…at any cost (if I can out to the Shaw Festival this summer I will be seeing Albertine in Five Times).
When I saw that The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant was going to be a part Canada Reads 2009 I was thrilled to read the novel. It was full of the same wonderful characters I came to love on the stage. I will admit that there were times that I had difficulty getting with the novel but once I got over the barrier I devoured the novel. I enjoyed the novel but I wouldn’t say it should your first encounter with Canadian literature because there is better stuff out there.
Michel Tremblay is one of Canada’s often forgot literary treasures and shouldn’t be left behind with other great Canadian French writers like Roch Carrier. The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant is a novel that should have been part of Canada Reads many times over but it’s not the novel that should get the accolades of THE novel all Canadians should read but the author is someone everyone should, no needs, to discover.
What others are say about The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant:
Roughing it in the Books gives info on the cover and a review worth reading.
http://www.roughingitinthebooks.com/?p=262
The Keepin’ it Real Book Club seems to have similar thoughts as I did on this novel.
http://kirbc.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/the-fat-woman-next-door-is-pregnant-by-michel-tremblay/
Reader of the Stack has some insightful comments on the novel.
http://www.readerofthestack.com/tag/sheila-fischman
As usual if you’re interested in having your reviewed listed here send an email to thatsthebook@gmail.com
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