Free For Sure by France Daigle

din’t I signifies “didn’t I tell you.”
    56.142.1
    Notes
    2 . There are two ways to pose this question: either the interrogative accent is placed on the second syllable, as in “realLY?” or, as is more usual, the emphasis is placed on the first syllable, thus: “REALly?!” which is a question combined with an exclamation, also known as the “Acadian interrogative” because of its falsely neutral tone.
    78.142.2
    Notes
    3 . As though to accentuate the sourness, Acadians add a strongly aspirated h to the word for bitter . Furthermore, many do not pronounce the r , which makes aigre sound like haigue .
    116.142.3
    Notes

CHAPTER 2
    The stone is the friend of numerals and numbers. Nothing expresses a mathematical elegance better than a stone to which we have given well-balanced measurements.
    145.144.2
    Epigraphs
    Jean Giono ,
“ La pierre” (“The Stone”) in Le Déserteur et autres récits ( The Deserter and Other Stories ), Gallimard, 1973
    Terry called out to the customer as she was about to open the door to leave.
    â€œAn’ do you know dis book over here?”
    Terry grabbed hold of the large volume under the counter and moved toward the woman.
    â€œGaston Miron’s de only Canadian dat’s listed as one of de forty-nine best books of poetry in French in La Bibliothèque idéale .”
    The woman glanced at the cover of La Bibliothèque idéale , a work that claimed to list all the books that ought to be included in a francophone’s ideal library. She did not seem to have seen it before. Terry showed her the table on pages 124 and 125.
    â€œEh? I don’t see any udder, anyhow . . .”
    The woman quickly scanned down the list.
    â€œNo, nor do I. But I don’t know them all.”
    â€œAnd as doh dat weren’t enuff . . . turns out dat was the feller’s only book.”
    The woman nodded, going down the list again more closely.
    â€œMaybe you’d like to borrow it? ’Tis right interestin’ just to look at. A body doesn’t have to read it all.”
    Aware that he’d switched to the less formal tu in addressing her, Terry offered the customer La Bibliothèque idéale.
    â€œYou can haul it back when yer books come in.”
    It was really a sales trick of his. He actually owned several copies of La Bibliothèque idéale , which he would lend out from time to time. When they returned it, people also tended to order a few of the books listed within. A few even ordered a copy of the reference work itself.
    â€œYes, I wouldn’t mind.”
    â€œLike I say, it’s interestin’ readin’ bits of it now an’ den . . .”
    146.8.9
    Didot Books
    In her novel 1953: Chronicle of a Birth Foretold , Acadian author France Daigle does not mention the creation that year of the publishing house Hachette’s paperback division, Livre de Poche. Henri Filipacchi, then Secretary General of Messageries Hachette, launched three books in paperback: Koenigsmark by Pierre Benoît, Les Clés du royaume ( The Keys to the Kingdom) by A. J. Cronin, and Vol de nuit ( Night Flight ) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Legend has it that the idea came to Filipacchi to publish books in a smaller, cheaper format when he saw an American GI, standing in front of a Paris bookstore, tear a book in two and stuff it into his pockets. The paperback had already existed for some time in England and the United States.
    147.45.2
    Useless Details
    â€œGaw?”
    â€œGone?”
    â€œGaw?”
    â€œYup, de lady’s gone.”
    Standing by the big glass door, her Tatou in her arms, Marianne looked from side to side without spotting the departing customer.
    148.103.1
    Disappearances
    If the u seems to be the vowel that evokes the least colour, the y is the one that’s most often forgotten. In fact, 8 of the 102 participants in the survey simply did not mention it. Although this absence is