Reviews

Keep On Truckin'

Patty Osborne

It’s to be expected that a novel set in New Brunswick would contain a fishing trip, a lobster shack, pickup trucks, dirt roads and a radio playing Acadian folk songs, but what’s unexpected about I Am a Truck by Michelle Winters (Invisible) is that the dialogue is in chiac (a mixture of French and English) and language is a catalyst that changes lives. Martin is a car salesman who keeps to himself and speaks only English—that is, until he befriends a fellow named Réjean, who speaks only French. The French coming out of Réjean’s mouth sounds so authoritarian and masculine that Martin decides to learn French, but once he feels fluent in his new language, he does not know how to come out of the closet as a French speaker. Then Martin meets a mysterious underworld figure from France, Réjean disappears (at least from his current life), Réjean’s devoted but now-lonely wife makes friends with a vivacious anglophone named Debbie and everything opens up from there. This fast-paced, quirky, heart warming and hilarious novel captures the fast and loose crossovers of language and culture that make southeast New Brunswick unique.

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