Group Read, February 2023: The Tin Flute

Our group read for February is The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy. Please join in the read and post any comments on this thread.

Just started reading this. I have a sinking feeling that it's going to be harsh and depressing, just from the words the author uses in her basic descriptions.

>2 annamorphic: I'm about 100 pages in. Agree that there seems to be little cause for optimism given the circumstances of each of the family members. Eldest son enlists in the army during WW2 - what could possibly go wrong? However, Florentine's potential relationships might offer her some chance of escape. It is a straightforward if not compelling read so far.

I’m afraid I don’t like this book. It reminds me a whole lot of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn but the characters are less sympathetic and there is less hope. Even the writing style is somehow flat. Ah well.

I finished the book today. The book doesn't appear to be anything remarkable by today's standards but apparently it was quite revolutionary at the time (1945) with its raw depiction of urban poverty going against the prevailing romanticism of life in Quebec by other novelists - to that extent I presume it deserves its place on a list of books charting the development of the novel (leaving aside the fact that Zola and others had been doing this elsewhere 70 years earlier).

Despite the predictable lack of silver linings in the story, I ended up quite liking it and found parts touching - a variety of characters mostly making the best of a bad situation, with the central dogged mother trying to keep her family together in some sort of dignity and security.

I finished the book earlier this week and even though I didn't love it, I'm still happy to have read it.

I agree with both >5 puckers: that this have been done before in other languages and other settings and with >2 annamorphic: that the depressing poverty is foreshadowed in the writing which was a bit heavy.

The most interesting aspect of the novel was probably how it used the war. War is obviously dangerous and horrible, but here it is also something positive that revitalizes the economy and opens new opportunities to poor men who don't have many other options.

>5 puckers: I think it was also an important book because previous Quebec literature was about farming and logging and this was a look at contemporary urban life. Set the stage for the “Quiet Revolution” of the early 60s.

>5 puckers: yes - it was also quite shocking for its sexuality and the seduction scene between Florentine and Jean. Québec was under harsh religious rule where every physical happiness was deftly qualified as a sin.
The French title, Bonheur d'occasion, means Fleeting Happiness - those tiny moments of happiness that we can grasp amid the terrible, grey, daily drudgery.
I remember studying it in French class and it was a sobering read!

>8 Cecilturtle: thanks for that insight. The French title sounds more apt.

>9 puckers: “d’occasion” also means “second-hand.”