Tete Blanche

Tête Blanche is the brilliant second novel that confirmed the talent of Marie-Claire Blais, a talent which burst upon Quebec's, and the world's, literary landscape with stunning impact when 'Mad Shadows' ('La Belle Bête') was published in the late fifties. Heralding the full-blown genius of works such as 'A Season in the Life of Emmanuel' and 'David Sterne,' Tête Blanche tells a delicate story of hte turbulent emotions of youth, rendered with assurance, artistic clarity and a lyric, painful realism. Different in form from her other works, Tête Blanche plays a muted variation on the themes of abandonment, sorrow and human despair which pervade the novels of Blais. Its power, like the power of all her writing, lies in her ability to reproduce the intangible contours of her characters' minds and souls and the agonizing effects of evil on - and in - the human heart.