The Heart Laid Bare eBook

By Michel Tremblay

Book Overview

Talonbooks is pleased to announce a new edition of one of Michel Tremblay's most unusual novels. First published in English translation by M&S in 1989 under the title The Heart Laid Bare Le coeur d couvert, Lem ac, 1986], British and American rights to this novel were sold to Serpent's Tail, who published this same book under a different title, Making Room, which is now out of print.

This new Talonbooks edition proudly restores this novel to its rightful place in Tremblay's sweeping and compassionate imagination of human sensibility and passion.

Jean-Marc has fallen in love. The object of his affection is Mathieu, a young actor working as a salesman at Eaton's while waiting for his big break. As a dowry to their new relationship, Mathieu brings S bastien, his son. Jean-Marc, a fusty academic, is not sure about being able to make room in his life for this four-year-old boy.

While daring, for some even shocking when it first appeared in the 1980s, this story has, like Tremblay's entire ouevre, stood the test of time and revealed itself to be a work of both enduring and prophetic vision

The Heart Laid Bare marks a significant departure for Michel Tremblay, because it is the first of his mature novels which is not set in the semi-autobiographical milieu of his childhood. Yet this thoroughly contemporary love story is told with all the warmth and empathy that is so characteristic of all of his other work.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0889224250
• ISBN13: 9780889224254
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Talonbooks, Limited
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

They don't allow bilingual reviews. They used to . . .

It's been a while since I've read fiction, but this one I gobbled up in a few days. This is the first that I've read by Michel Tremblay, probably because I found it in the library in Minneapolis under it's translated English title "Making Room" instead of Discovering a Heart or something more like that. I ordered Le Caeur Éclaté later on in it's original language from Québec. That one follows a similar style, not putting on airs or inventing a reality that isn't what one actual sees and experiences. It isn't always optimistic, in fact, it often isn't at all. But in the end, I found Le Coeur Découvert (Making Room) to be an optimistic book, all brought crashing down in Le Coeur Éclaté, but that second book resolves itself throughout it's pages. Life will continue and somehow, through unexpected little ways, the reader sees that it isn't over just because one is in their fifties and single. I was also grateful to see a book that goes beyond the stereotype of homosexual identity by presenting the main characters as humans first, then all the things that make up their identity. This book isn't amazing, but I'd say that what I read gave glimpses of a better way to be. That may sound ridiculous, but that's how I felt about it. I don't know what else to say about Le Coeur Découvert (Making Room) as I'm not good at talking about art, for lack of a better word, be it music, film, literature, etc . . .because I don't know how to find the right words to say why I like something. One last thing, this book is about a homosexual couple, but it's also a, dare I say universal? . . .story. Don't let the homosexual aspects of the book put you off. Thank you Monsieur Tremblay and thank you Québec.