The snowshoe hare: Diane’s metamorphosis

Born in L’Isle-aux-Grues, the talented and very imaginative Mireille Gagné drew on her childhood memories to write her new novel, Snowshoe hare. She tells the story of Diane, a woman who has a hare gene implanted to work more and sleep less. However, the “metamorphosis” does not go as planned!

The writer explains that a shingles attack last year forced her to slow down. She began to read about workaholics – people who are workaholics. This was the starting point of the novel.

“I found that interesting: there are different levels. There are the workaholics enthusiastic at work, of which I am one. I really enjoy doing tasks. But when the fun goes away and we have taken a little too much, and we no longer have fun doing what we have to do, we try to fill a kind of hole that does not exist. ‘no longer fills, because the pleasure is no longer there. I tried to understand. And that’s where I created Diane. “

While researching her medication, she came across articles about the least sleeping animals on earth – including the hare. “I said to myself, so it would be very funny if we could genetically modify a human and integrate a hare gene into him!” What if Diane received a gene to sleep less and work more? “

Things go wrong for Diane. The operation has unexpected … and maddening effects. Diane turns red overnight. His sense of smell, his vision, his breathing have changed. The males start to follow her a little too closely. What to do ?

Eugene

At the same time, Diane remembers a memorable encounter from her youth, in L’Isle-aux-Grues, with a young man fascinated by endangered animals, Eugène.

Certain elements of the novel, such as the disappearance of Eugene and the stable on fire, are taken from the history of L’Isle-aux-Grues. “I was inspired by some real stuff, but I left the island very early. I haven’t had any love affairs on the island. Eugene is the name of my uncle, in fact, who told me about the winds, the tides. “

His father was a hunting guide on Isle-aux-Oies all his life. “He was dependent on the tides. Nature is in control, you just suffer it. There is something beautiful and strong about this symbol and I tried to use it a bit in the novel. “

Tasty expressions

Mireille Gagné has also incorporated the vocabulary and tasty expressions of L’Isle-aux-Grues in her book, slipping expressions like “à la petite écore”, “the wind’s skin” and “the moon has the horns in it. air ”. And all her childhood, she too “ran the baton”: collected treasures on the shore.

♦ Mireille Gagné was born in L’Isle-aux-Grues and lives in Quebec.

♦ She has published books of poetry and short stories.

www.journaldequebec.com

About Victoria Smith

Victoria Smith who hails from Toronto, Canada currently runs this news portofolio who completed Masters in Political science from University of Toronto. She started her career with BBC then relocated to TorontoStar as senior political reporter. She is caring and hardworking.

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