PAPA MARTEL

Ten deal with a large French Canadian family living in a Maine town, arranged chronologically from 1919 to 1937. The stories, running the range from earthy humor to simple tragedy, are dominated by the lusty, good-hearted Papa, a successful if illiterate contractor endowed with tremendous de vivre and native intelligence. Births, deaths, marriages, a son studying for the priesthood, the dangers of making illegal applejack, a complicated inheritance, charity at home and in the community, are some of the events happening in this particular segment of the highly individualized bilingual culture of the French- Canadian enclave. An unpretentious book whose interest lies in the loving and accurate description of a region hardly touched upon in contemporary fiction.