Two Solitudes

I enjoyed this book mostly for its presentation of the recent history of Quebec. The novel presents a kind of snapshot of the English and French cultures at a turning point in their odd collective history. I found it helpful in understanding the roots of the ethnic and historical conflicts that remain largely unresolved in much of the province. The writing is solid if unspectacular -- overall I found that the plot held my interest, although it moved a bit slowly. All in all it's a good read, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand the weird sociological experiment that is Quebec.

Two solitudes by Hugh MacLennan is a graet Canadian novel. it discusses all canadian themes, such as landscape, bilingulism, conflicts on identity etc.I will ask every canadian to read this book. It's worth your time.

Although it has been several years since I have read "Two Solitudes," the book remains quite vivid for me -- perhaps, in no small part, because I live only a few miles from the Quebec border, and listen quite attentively to Canadian news on the radio. Everything, and yet nothing has changed regarding Anglo-French relations over the sixty years that have passed since the conclusion of the action in the book. Of course, English shop clerks in Montreal no longer tell Francophone patrons to "speak white;" the Roman Catholic Church has lost virtually all of its influence over French Canadians; the notion of the French being "maitres chez nous" -- masters in our own house -- has triumphed to such an extent that the province came within a hair's breadth of voting for independence several years ago. Yet despite the all but de facto political autonomy of Quebec -- and in no small part because of it -- all of the old misunderstanding and mistrust so skillfully depicted in MacLennan's book persist. Two profoundly different cultures, heirs to profoundly different colonial pasts, still vie for the soul of the second largest nation on earth. For this reason alone, Americans (famously and shamefully ignorant of Canadian history) ought to read "Two Solitudes;" for Canadians, or course, it should be required reading. But "Two Solitudes" is not merely a sociopolitical tract. I found the love story quite engaging, with neither of the characters presented as a mere representation of ethnicity and class, and the resolution ennobling in a way one doesn't expect from a novel any more. The term "old-fashioned" comes to mind, but I'm afraid that will be terribly off-putting for many modern readers. Let's call the book solid, sure, and rewarding, then -- and evocative and informative as well. That's a lot to put into a package this tidily crafted, but MacLennan has done it well. Exclusive of the work of Robertson Davies, in a class by itself, "Two Solitudes" bids fair to be called the Great Canadian Novel.