Writing about writing: English for French… in Québec… in the 1950s

A unique aspect of Day of Epiphany, which I never had to consider before, was the temporal and cultural distance between myself and the characters I was writing for. This is an English language novel intended for an English speaking audience, but it’s set in 1950s Québec. Unless specifically indicated (three or four scenes in particular) the characters would of course be speaking to one another in French throughout the novel. How to deal with that? Do I address the question at all? The best solution I could come up with was to make the narration, and the dialogue in particular, as natural as possible. As much as I could, I avoided the inclusion of French terms, unless there was no appropriate or better term in English. For instance, at the beginning of the first chapter, I make reference to a père prédicataire (an itinerant preacher), and I use the term curé (parish priest) a fair amount throughout the book as well. These were French terms that I thought important enough for the reader to learn. On the other hand, as tempting as it may be I never make use of the expansive Québécois lexicon of colourful curse words (tabarnak, câlisse, ostie, Crisse, trou de cul, bâtard, etc.). Instead, when my characters need to curse or call someone a nasty name, they do so in English. To do otherwise would be the written equivalent of the tired trope of countless Hollywood war movies, as when German soldiers speak to one another in English with German accents. 

Then, once I’ve committed to writing in English, I had to ensure that the language was consistent with the period, i.e. the 1950s. I recently read a scene from a novel that takes place in the 1980s, in which a character uses the expression “a big ask.” Having lived through the 1980s, I can promise you that NO ONE ever said “a big ask” when meaning “a lot to ask for.” Reading an expression so clearly from the 21st century in a scene from the ‘80s diminished the authenticity of the book for me just a bit, and I had no intention of making that kind of mistake in my own novel, whether the characters are ostensibly speaking French or not. 

At the same time, I deliberately avoided the use of ’50s era vernacular, simply because—rightly or wrongly— I identified it too closely with American popular culture, which felt out of place for for a story set in Québec. I did however use a couple of terms —namely “darwinists” instead of “evolutionary biologists” and “Mohammedans” instead of “Muslims”— that I felt would be appropriate for the period, especially by members of the clergy.

Publication is now days away. I’m spending the remaining days going over (and over and over) the print-ready files for final approval. As usual for me at this point in the process, I’m feeling both elated, excited, and scared shitless!

I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to how many times I’ve read Day of Epiphany in the past four months, and I’m happy to say that a) I’m more than satisfied with the quality of the writing, and b) I haven’t found any new typos of late. I’m trusting that you, my faithful readers, will find any remaining mistakes once the book comes out. We’ll know soon enough!