Carrier, Roch (b. 1937). Canadian novelist. A native of rural Quebec, he studied in Montreal and Paris and taught literature before becoming a fulltime writer. As well as novels, he has published collections of short stories including Joli deuils (1964) and Les Enfants du bonhomme dans la lune (1979), and plays, including La Céleste Bicyclette (1980). A natural story-teller, writing with an attractive verve and simplicity, he has been one of the most widely read québécois writers in English Canada.

He is best known for his early ‘trilogie de l'âge sombre’, in particular La Guerre, yes sir! (1968). This shows the impact of the ‘English’ World War II on a Breugelian rural Quebec; the realities of oppression are there, but presented in a grotesque light. Floralie, où es-tu? (1969) is the dream-like transposition of a troubled wedding night, while the final part of the trilogy, Il est par là, le soleil (1970), is the nightmarish depiction of a country boy's degradation in Montreal.

Carrier's subsequent six novels continue to offer a fantastic refraction of Quebec life. One of the most interesting is Il n'y a pas de pays sans grand-père (1979), made up of the thoughts of an old man who asserts the continuity of Quebec culture in solidarity with his grandson, in prison for anti-monarchist protests. La Dame qui avait des chaînes aux chevilles (1981), another interior monologue, is the dramatic story of a 19th-c. heroine who attempts to poison her husband for abandoning their child in the snow. Carrier's most ambitious work to date is De l'amour dans la ferraille (1984), a leisurely satirical panorama of village life and politics. Since then he has published two books combining story-telling and travel writing, about Australia (L'Ours et le kangourou, 1986) and Jordan (Chameau en Jordanie, 1988).

[Peter France]

The New Oxford Companion to Literature in French. Copyright © 1995, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.