Book Review: "Les filles de Caleb" trilogy

A couple of years ago, when I was in high school, I read this book trilogy. At the time I thought there only was two books. To my surprised I recently discovered the third one. The story is real, the characters existed in real life, and it was also adapted for TV as a miniserie called Les Filles de Caleb. Originally a Quebec production and later translated to english and played on the CBC network in Canada.

This is basically the story of three generation of really strong (not to say stubborn at times) women who always knew what they wanted in life and despite having to struggle with the time, constraints and people telling them you should do this and that as this is the proper way for a woman to act, they managed to realize their dreams and stick to their beliefs never to let a man tell them what they should do or how they should act. People could call them feminist or pioneers for the time.


Le chant du coq by Arlette Cousture

The first story, le chant du coq, is about Emilie, Caleb's very strong-willed daughter, whom at his greatest fears sometimes thinks she is too stubborn and will never find a man to marry and have a family as at the time, beginning of 1900s that is what women were supposed to do but Emilie always has in her her to continue her education and become a teacher which was frowned upon for girls of that time and as the first of a generation of strong-willed woman she does and proves everyone that women with enough determination could achieve any of their dreams. Truly inspiring in my book. So we see Emilie more to St-Tite from St-Stanilas - two small village close to Shawinigan I guess I should mention that town as most english speaking people know of it from a certain prime minister who had trouble even speaking in his own mother tongue haha - the two villages nowadays are in fact very close by but in those days or horses and carriages it was quite far. Anyways she moves to St-Tite to become a teacher in a small village school she is about 18 at the time if I remember correctly, still quite young but in those days I suppose it was old... she ends up falling in love and marrying one of her students he was the same age as she was, if you remember in those days only boys more proned to continue their education that is why he was in her class, he left school obviously as he was frowned upon for her to be with him and be his teacher as well. They have a rocky relationship and obviously in those times women popped children like there was no tomorrow, yikes. And he always kept leaving her with all the burden of the family and disappearing for very long periods of time to go work in the woods, he had the call of the wood as you can say it and coming back making her another baby and so on... despite all this Emilie being a strong-willed and determined woman continued teaching and taking care of the house, kids by herself most of the times. At one point she finds out Ovila (his name) is in Shawinigan as the town was booming at that point and decides to pack everything up and move their and force him to take care of his family which took quite a bit of courage on her part and yet she still had to be stronger than anything all through her years. She loved him sincerely and dearly but he used her quite a bit as we could say nowadays and in those days it was frowned upon to divorce or leave him once married.

Le cri de l'oie blanche by Arlette Cousture

Le cri de l'oie Blanche is the story of her daughter, another very strong-willed woman with dreams of being a doctor. As her mother she faced, due to the times she lived in, with the remarks of everyone telling her that it wasn't seen and done for a woman to become a doctor and pursue a career but as her strong-willed mother she persevered no matter what everyone said to discourage her. She studies to be a nurse in Montreal because obviously she wouldn't be accepted in the medicine program to become a "real" doctor and ends up being a doctor moving north (Abitibi) were only men were there to work in the (chantiers - sorry I can't find the right english word at the moment) and she moves there by herself to be a nurse as obviously that small retreated village needed someone to care for patients and the women giving birth rather than have to go far away to see a doctor, so in a way she realizes her dream and goal of being a doctor though no one really recognizes her skills and still treat her as a mere woman and not as an equal to men... sadly I think this can still exist even nowadays and that pisses me off sometimes possibly because I too come from a generation of strong women. You can say this story is a little the story of my grandmother, mother and myself as well as I am sure a lot of french-canadian people can see themselves in that story which makes it a truly well-written and researched story. Thumbs up to the author: Arlette Cousture. It is a true story with a little bit of fiction in it as it is the case for every book written. Anyways, Blanche meets the man of her dreams and marries and unlike her mother only has two children, two daughters and two very strong-willed daughter as well, obviously a family trait.

I love this story because you can truly see the differences but at the same time similiarities of all these woman in which they fight to be themselves and realize their goals and dreams despite whatever anyone says or tells them they shouldn't or it isn't proper or good. I prefer the term strong-willed rather than stubborn but I suppose there is a lot of stubborness in all of them. haha And you can truly see that each generation did a little bit better and got a little bit more successful in achieving their goals as the other... I guess you can say this is a story pioneering feminism in a way and women standing up for themselves and what they believe in. I guess that is why the books were and continue to be so popular and why any woman and man should read them.

L'abandon de la mésange by Arlette Cousture

L'abandon de la mesange is the story of Elise mainly, her sister too but mostly Elise, Blanche's eldest who has the dream of a country life having lived in the city all her life, I suppose you could say the grass is greener on the other side of the fence... she too is very strong-willed or stubborn, at her mother's desperate tries to want her to not make the same mistakes but as it is always the case everyone needs to live their life and make the mistakes in order to learn and grow... she too has to go through a lot of pain and criticism and being told you cannot or should not do this mainly her mother and sister telling her she shouldn't go back to the way it was for women and women have come too far to be regarded as somewhat equals though still not exactly equals even in those times... but the stron-willed read: stubborn if you wish, elise is determined to realize her dreams and live in the country and have a family rather than study which is what Blanche and her husband Clovis set money aside in order for their daughter to not be dependent on a man... but she learns by her mistakes and having fallen in love with a guy who essentially ended up being somewhat like her grandfather Ovila, Blanche is devasted to see that her daughter chose this path for herself but as it is the case with life knows Elise has to go through this to learn and grow.

Well, thsi is my review of this trilogy. Arlette Cousture is an amazing author and a true icon within the french canadian community (Quebec). If you understand french, I would definitely recommend this trilogy women and men as well.

This is truly a part of the french-canadian culture and I believe will remain that way for years and years to come.

I definitely give this five stars.