La Souillonne - A book by Franco-American writer Norman Beaupré

La Souillonne, monologue sur scène (2006)
Just released by Llumina Press

It is a dramatic monologue by an elderly woman who lives alone and who pours out her heart as to her life experiences. A former mill worker, she knows what hard work is like and also what transpired in those mills. She tells of the traumatic loss of the only man she ever loved and of the sad love affair of one of her friends. All in all, this woman has had a very hard life. Scorned by her pastor and the entire neighborhood she has managed to put together a whole litany of her views on the things she knows best.

Beaupré claims that this woman is the amalgamation of all the marginalized, abused, and scorned women that he has met over the course of the years. She is the Franco-American version of La Sagouine by the Acadian author, Antonine Maillet. And like Maillet's play, La Souillonne is written in the dialect of her region. The play is one long monologue on fourteen themes such as, les amouracheries du moulin, la boisson, les histouères du Christ, and la canne de boutons.

The book is written in French and is available from Llumina Press or from Amazon.com

For other books by Norman Beaupre, visit his website at
http://www.nrbeaupre.com/