« Paul à Québec » by Michel Rabagliati
By Farzad FARID
- 2 minutes read - 346 words🇫🇷 Simonac ! Tu veux-tu améliorer ton vocabulaire québécois tout en lisant une histoire émouvante ? Alors lis donc « Paul à Québec ».
Note: I really don’t know if this comic book has been translated to English or even if it’d be as fun to read, because it’s full of typically French Canadian expressions and slang.
This comic book is part of a series written by an award-winning author from the Québec province of Canada. It was given to me by a canadian friend. Another canadian friend told me this morning she has read the whole series!
The story begins for me as a nice manual to learn how to speak “Québecois” (I even find myself taking the Quebec accent in my head by reading the expressions sometimes incomprehensible 🙂), while discovering the in-laws of the hero, without real history: the first part is quite contemplative.
Then, the story switches with a dramatic event and becomes very touching until the end. It’s an intimate story, in the heart of a family in Quebec City, we are first in the Now, a great family celebration, at the home of the narrator’s father-in-law, who we discover little by little that he is the central figure of the story, which was initially centered on the narrator. The narrator himself, Paul, an illustrator, is inspired by the life of the author of the comic book series. Then the story focuses on the father-in-law, and we dive into his childhood, his emancipation, his active life, his personal and professional achievements.
I won’t say any more about the dramatic turning point in the story so as not to spoil anything, just know that I couldn’t let go of the comic once I got there and had to finish everything before I could to go to bed, satisfied, but my throat a little tied up…
I am super happy that my friend from Quebec gave me this book, and I think I will read all the others. I even discovered in passing that this comic book has given birth to a movie!