The American Fiancée: A Novel
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In this extraordinary breakout novel—a rich, devastatingly humorous epic of one unforgettable family—award-winning author Eric Dupont illuminates the magic of stories, the bonds of family, and the twists of fate and fortune to transform our lives.
Over the course of the twentieth century, three generations of the Lamontagnes will weather love, passion, jealousy, revenge, and death. Their complicated family dynamic—as dramatic as Puccini's legendary opera, Tosca—will propel their rise, and fall, and take them around the world . . . until they finally confront the secrets of their complicated pasts.
Born on Christmas, Louis Lamontagne, the family's patriarch, is a larger-than-life lothario and raconteur who inherits his mother's teal eyes and his father's brutish good looks and whose charms travel beyond Quebec, across the state of New York where he wins at county fairs as a larger-than-life strongman, and even in Europe, where he is deployed for the US Army during World War II. We meet his daughter, Madeleine, who opens a successful chain of diners using the recipes from her grandmother, the original American Fiancée, and vows never to return to her hometown. And we end with her son Gabriel, another ladies' man in the family, who falls in love with a woman he follows to Berlin and discovers unexpected connections there to the Lamontagne family that re-frame the entire course of the events in the book.
An unholy marriage of John Irving and Gary Shteyngart with the irresistible whimsy of Elizabeth McCracken, The American Fiancée is a big, bold, wildly ambitious novel that introduces a dynamic new voice to contemporary literature.
Translated from the French by Peter McCambridge.
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Eric Dupont. (2020). The American Fiancée: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Eric Dupont. 2020. The American Fiancée: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Eric Dupont, The American Fiancée: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2020.
MLA Citation (style guide)Eric Dupont. The American Fiancée: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2020.
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- bioText: Eric Dupont is an author, teacher and translator from Montreal. His French-language novel La Logeuse won the Combats des livres. He was a finalist for both the Prix littéraire France-Québec and the Prix des cinq continents. He was the winner of the Prix littéraire des collégiens and the Prix des libraires. His fourth novel, The American Fiancee was on the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist and was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for translation.
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In this extraordinary breakout novel—a rich, devastatingly humorous epic of one unforgettable family—award-winning author Eric Dupont illuminates the magic of stories, the bonds of family, and the twists of fate and fortune to transform our lives.
Over the course of the twentieth century, three generations of the Lamontagnes will weather love, passion, jealousy, revenge, and death. Their complicated family dynamic—as dramatic as Puccini's legendary opera, Tosca—will propel their rise, and fall, and take them around the world . . . until they finally confront the secrets of their complicated pasts.Born on Christmas, Louis Lamontagne, the family's patriarch, is a larger-than-life lothario and raconteur who inherits his mother's teal eyes and his father's brutish good looks and whose charms travel beyond Quebec, across the state of New York where he wins at county fairs as a larger-than-life strongman, and even in Europe, where he is deployed for the US Army during World War II. We meet his daughter, Madeleine, who opens a successful chain of diners using the recipes from her grandmother, the original American Fiancée, and vows never to return to her hometown. And we end with her son Gabriel, another ladies' man in the family, who falls in love with a woman he follows to Berlin and discovers unexpected connections there to the Lamontagne family that re-frame the entire course of the events in the book.
An unholy marriage of John Irving and Gary Shteyngart with the irresistible whimsy of Elizabeth McCracken, The American Fiancée is a big, bold, wildly ambitious novel that introduces a dynamic new voice to contemporary literature.
Translated from the French by Peter McCambridge.
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"I loved The American Fiancée for its heart and scope. Dupont leads us through the tale with grace, cunning, wit, and high intelligence. It's a brilliant tribute not only to the unforgettable Lamontagne clan, but to the art of storytelling." — Patrick deWitt, author of French Exit
"The American Fiancée is a wild, joyful cacophony of rumors, tragedies, and loose ends that come together in a gravity-defying feat. Like the best of family lore, it will remind you of the first tales you were ever told, and why you love stories in the first place." — Thea Lim, author of An Ocean of Minutes
"Francophones are at the heart of our history, our identity, and our success as a country. For centuries, Francophones have helped build the strong, inclusive Canada we know today – while Francophone voices have brought Canadian stories to the world. Thanks to writers like Eric Dupont, that's as true today as ever. The American Fiancée is a testament to the power of storytelling – and the Canadians who bring that tradition to life." — Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
"Both heartbreaking and hilarious." — Publishers Weekly
"Dupont's spellbinding tale spectacularly drives home the wonders of long-form storytelling." — Booklist (starred review)
"Dupont's bruiser of a novel begins as a traditional family saga set in a small, early-20th-century Quebec village before swerving into new, less linear, and more psychologically demanding territory. Everyone's version of events differs here; there's no trusting who's hero, victim, or villain—or what's real; parallels accumulate; every casually mentioned detail becomes important as truths are revealed.... the sweet, sour, and salty world Dupont creates is thoroughly addictive." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Starred review from December 1, 2019
French Canadian Dupont's bruiser of a novel begins as a traditional family saga set in a small, early-20th-century Quebec village before swerving into new, less linear, and more psychologically demanding territory. Born in 1918 and almost immediately orphaned, larger-than-life figure Louis Lamontagne grows up with his grandmother Madeleine, a powerhouse herself, in Rivière-du-Loup. The names Louis and Madeleine will recur among other characters, as will a birthmark shaped like a bass clef and blue eyes in a particular shade of teal. Louis' nickname, "The Horse," is his alone, however, derived from his mythic strength. Womanizing, storytelling Louis' life is by turns rollicking and tragic. He evolves from a charismatic, beloved boy to a witness to World War II atrocities to an alcoholic funeral director after his youngest son dies in a tragic accident. His middle child, Madeleine, eventually takes center stage. As a pregnant, unmarried teenager, she moves to Quebec City in the 1960s and opens a diner that she expands into a hugely successful chain while raising twin sons, Michel and Gabe. This first half of the novel, chock full of digressive stories about seemingly minor characters, has a rambling, overstuffed, 19th-century feel. But then, more than 250 pages in, Dupont shifts gears; the novel narrows and becomes epistolary. In 1999, Gabe, on a hopeless romantic quest in Germany, and Michel, an opera singer making a controversial film version of Tosca in Rome, begin a correspondence expressing their ambivalence toward each other and their conflicting views of their mother. Meanwhile, Gabe meets an elderly German woman with a convoluted story she shares in notebooks that take Gabe and the reader in unexpected directions. Everyone's version of events differs here; there's no trusting who's hero, victim, or villain--or what's real; parallels accumulate; every casually mentioned detail becomes important as truths are revealed. While the intensity of Dupont's prose can be maddening, the sweet, sour, and salty world he creates is thoroughly addictive.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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January 20, 2020
Canadian author Dupont (Life in the Court of Matane) spins an unwieldy yarn spanning from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic in rural Quebec to Rome in the early days of the new millennium. In 1918 Rivière-du-Loup, Canada, Louis Lamontagne is born during a live nativity scene to an American mother. Louis, nicknamed “the Horse” due to his size, is raised by his grandmother Old Ma Madeleine and grows into a strongman performer, touring county fairs in America. He then enlists during WWII, participates in the liberation of Dachau, and returns to the U.S., where he marries a local girl and becomes a washed up drunk. Moving forward to the mid 1960s, his daughter, Madeleine, is embarrassed by Louis and devotes her energy to her twin sons. The second half of the story follows the different paths of the twin boys: Gabriel becomes a muscled seducer of women (unknowingly in his grandfather’s vein) and moves to Berlin; Michel becomes a world class opera singer, filming a new version of Puccini’s Tosca in Rome. As the novel accelerates toward the finale, the disparate threads interweave heavy-handedly with the characters converging on the Roman film set. While jam-packed with family secrets and deceptions, Dupont’s sprawling tale also risks reader exhaustion. Those who enjoy sprawling family sagas and are willing to put in the work will find this outing has its rewards.
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Starred review from January 1, 2020
Early in the twentieth century, the titular American fianc�e, Madeleine, arrives in the remote Quebecois town of Rivi�re-du-Loup to wed Louis-Benjamin in accordance with her family's wishes. That marriage will spawn generations of teal-eyed descendants, starting with Louis the Horse Lamontagne, whose penchant for gin-fueled stories drives much of the early part of this immensely entertaining and fluidly translated novel. While ordinary love is cruel, Puccinian love is merciless, says Solange, a family friend. Indeed, the Puccini opera Tosca occupies prime real estate as its plot shapes this multigenerational epic that zooms in and out of individual characters' lives. Looping from small-town Canada to Montreal, the action reaches to Nazi Germany and contemporary Europe. If at times key pivot points depend too conveniently on coincidence, Dupont's spellbinding tale nevertheless spectacularly drives home the wonders of long-form storytelling. Stories, Michel, they're good for kids, but then one day you grow up and you've got adult problems, says the Horse's daughter, Madeleine, dismissively. She's got a point, but when we shed our mortal skins, our stories are all that we leave behind. Through his characters, Dupont has woven a memorable one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
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In this extraordinary breakout novel—a rich, devastatingly humorous epic of one unforgettable family—award-winning author Eric Dupont illuminates the magic of stories, the bonds of family, and the twists of fate and fortune to transform our lives.
Over the course of the twentieth century, three generations of the Lamontagnes will weather love, passion, jealousy, revenge, and death. Their complicated family dynamic—as dramatic as Puccini's legendary opera, Tosca—will propel their rise, and fall, and take them around the world . . . until they finally confront the secrets of their complicated pasts.Born on Christmas, Louis Lamontagne, the family's patriarch, is a larger-than-life lothario and raconteur who inherits his mother's teal eyes and his father's brutish good looks and whose charms travel beyond Quebec, across the state of New York where he wins at county fairs as a larger-than-life strongman, and even in Europe, where...
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