{"product_id":"sacre-blues-an-unsentimental-journey-through-quebec-9781551990811","title":"Sacre Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec","description":"\u003cp\u003eWinner of the 2000 Quebec Writers Federation First Book Award and the Mavis Gallant Prize for Nonfiction  A hip  enlightening portrait of a place most Canadians find baffling: Quebec without the politics.  Why do three million Quebecers tune in the same absurd sitcom every week? How did they get the nickname \"pepsis\"? Why does Celine Dion put on a down-home accent when she returns to her home province?  For referendum-weary English Canadians  Quebec is an enigma wrapped in a yawn. Taras Grescoe treats the province as an exotic destination. He takes readers onto the shuffleboard courts of Florida  to a francophone country-and-western festival in rural Mauricie  to the caf tables of expatriate Quebecers in Paris. He deconstructs a Montreal Canadiens hockey game  explores the stunning diversity of Quebecs newspapers  and dismantles Bombardier snowmobiles. En route  he meets Mohawk Warriors  Yiddish-speaking French Canadians  and the UFO-obsessed followers of Ral.  Informed and incisive  Sacr Blues explores the heart of contemporary Quebec: its love-hate relationship with France and the United States; the dance  theatre  and literary productions celebrated in Europe but little known here; its fears about distinctness on an increasingly uniform continent. Along the way we meet such Quebec residents as the playwright Michel Tremblay and the novelist Neil Bissoondath  Teleglobe CEO Charles Sirois and the arctic explorer Bernard Voyer  the foul-mouthed columnist Pierre Foglia and the esteemed philosopher Charles Taylor.  Sacr Blues serves up a spicy  irreverent  inside view of this unique and little-known part of North America. With side orders of poutine  maple syrup  and Vachon snack cakes. And scarcely a mention of Lucien Bouchard.  From the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647082618933,"sku":"ByrdShop_1551990814","price":25.1,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781551990811.jpg?v=1781688218","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/sacre-blues-an-unsentimental-journey-through-quebec-9781551990811","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}