André Langevin

Langevin, André (b. 1927). Canadian novelist whose work is typical of the mood of depression and confinement often present in Quebec literature before the Révolution Tranquille of the 1960s. Among his early works Poussière sur la ville (1953) is a moving depiction of the stoic despair of sensitive individuals in stagnant small-town communities. His later work remains faithful to this initial vision, reflecting little of the social advances made in Quebec since 1960. L'Élan d'Amérique (1972) and Une chaîne dans le parc (1974) are powerfully written, but present characters for whom the future is barren and without hope.

[Ian Lockerbie]