![]() ![]() Or was this blurb just another bloated piece of hype? ![]() I wondered if he was really as good as Irving and Márquez, two luminaries of world literature (and longtime personal favourites of mine). ![]() ![]() Like most Canadiens anglais, I didn’t hear of Éric Dupont until this English translation hit the Giller Prize longlist in 2018. And he’s every bit as good as them.”- Voir “If the Americans have John Irving and the Colombians Gabriel García Márquez, we have Eric Dupont. The blurb on Songs for the Cold of Heart got all my skeptic senses tingling: At worst, blurbs are clichéd, or taken out of out of context, or of dubious veracity (did Gary Shteyngart really read all those books?). Just check how often a blurber’s name appears on the acknowledgements page. Blurbs are, at best, the most biased form of literary criticism. Let’s take a moment and appreciate the book and the blurb, in both official languages. I was hoping to see it crop up – but alas, no Canadians at all are in the running for either the Man Booker International Prize or the Best Translated Book Award. Songs for the Cold of Heart has been on my mind lately, as various translated book award long and short lists are being announced. During my hiatus, I wrote a “recommend” for Canadian literary website 49th Shelf. ![]()
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