Notes from Exile: On Being Acadian

This book has been in my bloated personal library since 2003, this review being written in retrospect in late 2008. While I've rarely met a book that I didn't like, this tome has earned a permanent place of honor at my bedside. Given that I am pretty much bed-ridden and always in the middle of at least three books, we're talking prime real estate. What did Msr. Doucet do to merit such a choice location? He plumbed the depths of his own heart and shared it with us. In the course of doing so, he spoke for all of us "on being Acadian". I am not ashamed to say that many a page has had a tear gently removed from it. You see, my bloodlines run back to every founding family of Acadie. I am only the second generation in the entire history of my family to speak English as a first language. My grandparents were required to speak French at home. They did not learn English until their little one-room schoolhouse, taught by one of my great-great-uncles in French, was required to teach and speak only English. At times, a supervisor from the State would stand in the back and punish any child who slipped up with the rap of a brass-edged ruler on little knuckles. Hearing the 'old people' sit and speak French at family gatherings is one of my fondest memories. I used to jokingly tell my son that when it came time for him to take a wife, he needed to go back and find a dark-eyed Quebecois angel, like they did in the time of my grandparents. To my surprise, he did. Imagine that-a teenager taking advice! Acadie continues to be a bonafide nation, albeit disenfranchised from our homeland. Clive Doucet reminds us of that fact so clearly. Go find the passages in this book where he simply and yet eloquently addresses his feelings of loss and separation as he watches the last generation to live in the old ways die off. While it is gratifying to see so much grassroots interest in the true history of Acadie, we must not fall into the trap of seeing Acadie as only 'something that happened'. Our noble heritage was never more relevent than in these troubled times. It was for that reason that this book seems to have been written-a roadmap for today's Acadien, a reminder that history tends to repeat itself. Do we simply note our feelings, cry our tears and let Acadie die or do we act and try to preserve some form of community? All Acadie owes Clive Doucet a debt of gratitude for acting as one of our spokesmen. Buy the book; you'll be glad you did. Fiere d'etre Acadienne-n'oubliez pas.(If you don't know French, I challenge you to go to and learn your first French words!) His other works are also highly recommended.

This past summer I was taking a Bicycle Vacation in Nova Scotia and as part of our trip we went to Grand Pre. Though I am a native New Englander, I had only a cursory idea about the Acadian diaspora in the l8th century and no awareness at all of the l994 reunion in New Brunswick. I was actually looking for another book to increase my knowledge and awareness about this subject, when I stumbled onto a copy of Clive's book. While it does finally run out of steam near it's conclusion, it is an fine work in and of itself. But for anyone who wants a sense of the modern Acadian movement it is invaluable. And if one is an exile of any sort--cultural, political, sexual--this provides amazing insight into what it means to be an exile of any type in the modern world.

On the surface, Notes from Exile gives a brief overview of the history of the Acadians of Maritime Canada and the difficulties they faced in trying to strike a neutral balance between France and England, resulting in their removal from Nova Scotia in 1755. But wrapped around this history is Doucet's own story as the child of an Acadian father and an English mother who was caught between their two very different worlds.Doucet is a radio reporter and his sense of narrative is impeccable, but while he makes Notes from Exile an interesting read is the intertwining tales of Doucet's youth, the 1994 Acadian World Congress and the history of the Acadians. As frustrating as it sometimes can be, this blending of tales helps underscore how the events of 1755 remain relevant to Acadians nearly 250 years later.