La Guerre, Yes Sir!

Guerre, Yes Sir!, La (1968), Roch Carrier's first and best-known novel, is a surrealist fable set in rural Québec during the Second World War. Carrier uses the conscription crisis to allegorize the tragedy of fear and hatred governing French-English relations. The novel is dominated by the wake and funeral of the war hero Corriveau. Corriveau's friend Bérubé beats his bride Molly, a Newfoundland whore, while his officers, the "English" soldiers who delivered the corpse, are attacked by the villagers. Other vignettes reflect violence literally and linguistically: Joseph chops off his hand in order to avoid conscription, while Amélie rules over her deserter husband and the draft-dodging Arthur, loving both cowards. Carrier's nightmare vision portrays the peasant and his language realistically but sympathetically. The novel was translated by Sheila Fischman (1970) and adapted for the stage in French (1970) and English (1972).