And maybe, that's what makes the journey so worth it! At the end of all the traveling and meeting people, going from desert to ocean, it's all that mattered, and as the reader, we tend to know it, even not conscienciously (ok, it's also because we can see how many pages there are left, so we can guess the outcome). It actually reminded me of Into the Wild, because there is this quest, that as the reader, we tend to feel, from the start, will be hopeless and disappointing. Isn't it what we ask from a book ? To learn and to feel ? We learn about the conquest, we travel with them, we feel with them. Jacques Poulin drew me into his bilingual world, where the French Canadian language and world meets with the American one. I think it is actually what makes them ring so realistic ! it feels like we all met on the side of the road, that we all rode in the old Volkswagen, looking for someone only the man knows, and even he doubts he has actually ever known his brother. We don't know their full names, we don't know their age or so many other things. I just couldn't stop reading, I felt like I knew both main characters, even though not many specific details are given about them. I just love this kind of books, because even though the story seems so peculiar and maybe, in a way, unrealistic, it really is about life, in the end. This book is so full of love, simple love, but also history, hurt, disappointment and anger, too.

I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in exploring Canadian literature or who just wants a good read. This book was short-listed as one of five books in CBC’s Canada Reads program in 2005. Regardless, this English version was a really nice, easy read where I was drawn into the narrator’s quest very quickly: Where did the brother go? What happened to him and what became of him? However, it was very clear soon into the book that the process of how one reaches a goal is often as, if not more, rewarding as achieving the goal itself. With translated work, one has to wonder how much of the style of the writer actually came through in the translation. This turned out to be a journey of self-discovery as well as a history lesson for the writer where he learned about the plight of the Native Americans through the eyes of a Métis. Louis, Missouri and then headed west along the Oregon Trail. Together, driving an old Volkswagen minivan, they traced the footsteps of the French explorers from the St. At the beginning of his quest, he picked up a hitchhiker, a young Métis girl.

The only trace he had was a 15-year-old postcard from a small town in Quebec. A 40-year-old French-Canadian writer from Montreal set out to find his long lost brother, whom he had not seen for 20 years.

Jacques poulin volkswagen blues