December 19, 2003

Boise State's Will Browning Offers Ducharme Novel In Translation

Go Figure (originally Va savoir, Gallimard), a 1994 novel by the acclaimed and reclusive Quebec author Réjean Ducharme, was recently translated from French to English by Boise State University professor of modern languages and literatures Will Browning. This is the second Ducharme novel Browning has translated and had published in Canada. He is currently working on a third. Go Figure is the haunting tale of a Montréal couple alienated from each other following the miscarriage of twin girls. Rémi Vavasseur’s wife, Mammy, leaves him to crisscross Europe and Africa in the company of Rémi’s former mistress, not because she no longer loves him, but because she no longer loves herself. While she is gone, Rémi remodels a ramshackle house in the Quebec countryside in anticipation of Mammy’s returning to him one day. This novel of “leftover love” is Rémi’s journal of their parallel journeys. Ducharme, considered one of Quebec’s foremost writers, is known throughout the Francophone world for his rich language full of juxtapositions and double meanings, a particular challenge for any translator. For example, Browning coined the term “fixher-upper” [sic] to refer to the house Rémi is remodeling for his wife. In addition to his nine intricate novels, of which only four have been translated into English, Ducharme has written screenplays for two films and exhibited his sculptures and paintings under the pseudonym Roch Plante. He has been a recluse for more than three decades and is believed to live in the Montréal area. Browning has also translated Ducharme’s only novel in verse, La Fille de Christophe Colomb (Gallimard, 1969) as The Daughter of Christopher Columbus (Guernica, 2000), in which “Browning offers English-language readers a clever, privileged, yet exigent glimpse into the work of one of Quebec’s most fascinating and elusive writers” (Letters in Canada, 2000). Browning teaches French and Spanish at Boise State. He is planning a book signing in Boise around mid-February. Go Figure is available at www.talonbooks.com or may be ordered by your local bookstore. -30- ISBN 0-88922-482-X 5.5X8.5, 256 pp Trade Paper $19.95 Canadian/$15.95 U.S. (plus $3 shipping and handling for each book) Talonbooks P.O. Box 2076 Vancouver, B.C. V6B 3S3 Canada e-mail: orders@talonbooks.com phone: (604) 444-4889 fax: (604) 444-4119 Contact Will Browning Modern languages and literatures 208 426-1071 Media Contact Kathleen Craven communications and marketing 208 426-3275