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My Dinosaur
The figure of the father occupies a particularly significant place in Qu�b�coise literature–there’s a real fascination with fathers, and this recurring persona populates fiction, films, and the stories people tell of their families and themselves.
Thus, it’s not surprising that, as he witnessed his own father’s frailty, Fran�ois Turcot–one of Quebec’s most celebrated young literary voices–would write his own dedication to his vanished father, entitled My Dinosaur. In this, his first collection of poems to be published in English (and translated by renowned poet Er�n Moure), Turcot excavates, reconstructs, and pays tribute not just to the father, but also to the figure of the son, and to writing itself as key to story, emotion, memory, and history.
The dinosaur of My Dinosaur is that of the distant father, sought in mourning, by the son. With luminous and lucid writing, Turcot excavates the fossil gaze of his father, in an elated elegy composed of poems both tensed and open, minimalist and talkative, serious and droll, alternating the voice and writings of the father with the fictions and assemblies of the son–reminding us that a man’s story can only be told by assembling the shreds and bits that we’ve accumulated over the course of our lives. As prolonged metaphor for all disappearances and for the endurance of memory, Turcot’s meticulous assembly in My Dinosaur is a tribute to all our Dads.
Turcot’s surprisingly light and wryly humorous poems will resonate deeply with readers who are inquisitive about the role of family and memory in the construction of identity and self. Scholars who are exploring literary work on grief, and anyone who has lost a parent and felt grief but also curiosity about their lives will connect with Turcot’s reflections in My Dinosaur. And finally, fans of the poetics and translation practice of Er�n Moure will delight in this new work that has earned comparisons to Moure’s own elegiac work in Kapusta (Anansi, 2015).
“Turcot’s poems tend towards minimal, shattered moments, that hint at the emotion of an instant without fully unpacking it” —Winnipeg Free Press
“Throughout this magnificent collection, we find fragments of memory that bring a father (the author’s) back to life. Oscillating between the shadows and the light, François Turcot presents his lines as though they were archaeological material and reminds us that (hi)story is made of fragments, which can only be told ‘shred by shred.’ The father has lost his diary he called his ‘Book of Hours,’ and so that’s what the son will try to piece back together. The result is both disturbing and brilliant.” —Radio-Canada/La librarie francophone
“Turcot and Moure’s collaboration is such a compelling and remarkable project—one that is as demanding as it is rare.” —Canadian Literature
“Assembled using a variety of materials (prose, verse, letters), Mon dinosaure catalogues a sort of Father-constellation, fragmented into several utterances of memories filtered by a type of poetry which weighs up its effects and fears boastfulness more than anything…. More than just a book on the father figure, Mon dinosaure highlights the essential share of fiction that fuels and shapes memory.” —Voir
“François Turcot speaks of the death of the father in Mon dinosaure, a singular book that opts for a poetic approach which is both stimulating and original.” —Voix et images
“Mon dinosaure offers a strong reading experience, Borgesian in a way, where form, robust and demanding, combines with content both humble and sensitive, hold up in an awareness of the volatility and memory of things.” —Lettres québécoises
“This kind of work is magnificent. Here’s a well-constructed book that not only offers itself the pleasure of speaking of the life beyond death, but establishes a dialogue between lost loves.” —Le Devoir
“The loquaciousness we have encountered here, in this writing (rewritten in translation for those of us with insufficient French) belongs to François Turcot & it offers us a tough, awkward, fantastical, & loving remembrance of a father missed, & now booked for his readers.” —Eclectic Ruckus
“Turcot explores the distance between parent and child, the nostalgia, silences, and pain, and in particular the difficulties of navigating the father-son gap. In these poems, Turcot takes the important step of asking his father, “who are you?” – an admirable effort that leads to seeing the parent as a person rather than a symbol.” —Montreal Review of Books
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Details
Dimensions:
160 Pages
7.80in * 5.10in * .30in
180.00gr
.40lb
Published:
March 02, 2016
Publisher:
ISBN:
9781771662307
Book Subjects:
Featured In:
Language:
eng
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