Letter to Tony O'Neill

Ok Tony
back home
read the story

it is a great read! Very well translated: I was scared before reading it because, for us québécois writers, those French translations were and still are, as far as «hip-beat-books» are concerned, badly and poorly and painfully done! The early translations of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs (especially!) were so depressing... How can I explain Tony: it would be like reading a translation of Céline done by a British writer instead of an American writer... tight in the ass if I may say... A very good friend of mine, Claude Pélieu (married to artist Mary Beach and a French member of the Beat Generation and a smack user till is death) was the first translator of Burroughs and it was aggravating and I told him... But now they (the French) do a better job and your story is perfectly translated... It gets bad usually when they try to match the slang... it would sound better in «Quebecois«... but the market for such translation is to limited: so better a few bugging words in French-slang to reach a wider market. A hip book that would be translated by a Quebecois writer would read better but could not make it in the French market, but a book translated even badly by a French writer will sell in Québec! So your story has the best of both world: very well translated with no ridicule French-slang, and «Notre Dame...» will sell in all the francophone territories!!! There you go! And by the way, thank god (or Buddha) Burroughs is being or has been translated again and it is a good read! What is hard to match in the translation of American avant-garde books, is the slang: french-québécois is closer to the American idiomatic slang than «french argot»! But we do not have the market for such hip books...

Re-reading my precedent email, I noticed a lot of typing mistakes...hope it did not give y our to much trouble Tony! And by the way I thought it was touching to think of you feeding your daughter: brought back souvenirs here... As long as you can kiss the little feet of your daughter, you are safe... When you will have to stop doing it: watch out! be aware... she will be close to adolescence... and then you have to be on your toes (how do we say: «no pun intended»)! They go through their teenage years so early these days... It starts at 12... Surely due to the cell phone, Internet, reality TV etc etc and having a single daughter is very special... in all the meanings of the word! If you want to have an idea of what my little Virginia whose feet I was tenderly kissing turn out to become, type her name on Google or Facebook... Until 13, she was grunge, roots, and then... foxy Virginie, in love with a Latino rapper and delinquent! Ti stay close to Virginie, I got myself involve with her Urbano, got him in the studio recording is raps on music played by my musicians and took him on the road with me were he came on the stage at the end and did after letting him do his thing with one song we would do a rap number together and I got him some airplay on the radio! After 4 years of that relation, Virginie dumped him and came back to be our little baby at 18! And listen to this: We have 10,000 books in the house but she doesn't read (except when I find her a disturbing life bio about teenagers in distress or a young woman in hell bound skid...) Tony, You are having the best years now with you daughter... hold on to it! Think of it, how old is she ?... under 6? 5?

Like I said, and surely repeating myself: can't wait to receive the «parcel» you are sending me, and can't wait to read you upcoming novel... When you say that you find it hard to get the critic attention or something like that... Shit there are so many books being released every week (not to mention all the cds now that we can record on a laptop!)... How can one draw attention... but I think that your are doing well: man I found your book at Urban Outfitter, a hip-cool clothing store downtown Montreal! You are thus far you are one of the hot avant-garde elected selected few! They had on the shelf both colors cover... I choose the yellow one although red coca-cola is my color! But the yellow cover was the first one that caught my eyes!

In you email you mention 2-3 writers that I am going to look into! I read all Bukowski... Wow! I just re-read all Kerouac... You know, Tony, talking of not being noticed as much as we wishes, well I find it discussing to not find Kerouac in some major scalar anthology! Jesus-Christ the man changed totally the contemporary literature! And some of those university assholes do not find him worth being in their anthology... I my dreams I spit HIV saliva in their ignorant eyes! Kerouac man! Burroughs, Ginsberg, Corso were found of him to the point of saying that he was the mastermind of all the beat and modern literature! So we have ourselves a long way to go... Myself, I got it made in Québec being studied in all school levels... but although I have published in France, and made my mark in the avant-garde, I have still a lot of work to do... and time is running out... I am healthy but I am sixty... ( those Beatles lyrics come to mind...)

You are so right (right?) when you say that the intelligentsia only take notice of «reality books)... but they fade away fast... and the type of writing that you do will stay! All you need is keep at it... Man look at Patricia Highsmith, she was not recognised in her own country until after 40 years of publishing best sellers... Then if you would get a bestseller you would be comfortable money wise but under so much press ion by the business to come up with a follow up that would sell as much or more!

Sorry for again writing so much... But I know one thing for sure Tony: do it while you feel it! Because nothing last! My appreciation of you work and feeling toward you personally as much as professionally will last... but the «heart pouring writing» will not last... We will go on with life individually... but we will have at least something to show in demonstration of what we are and feel for each other work and life trajectory... I took a chance sending you an email and here we are sharing like old friends...

I now have to go drive my daughter downtown Mtl, - I bought her a Jeep Liberty but daddy has to still drive her... I prefer that because it is Saturday and Saturday night tends to be a big night... Better not being stuck with a vehicle parked somewhere and the temptation to drive it high... Last year Virginie had a very bad accident: she wrecked bumper to bumper the Mustang GT that I had given her for her 18 birthdays: when I saw the car, I started shaking... I could she come out of it without a scratch... plus the fact that she was under the ... And the cups knew me and let her go without a test... When I saw the movie «Taken» 2 week ago, it shooked me to my soul... Go see it Tony but do not bring your wife: she will lock you d daughter in her room and will not let her out of her sight! But what a great movie!

Take care Tony
give my best to your wife and daughter

(I mentioned reading your book on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Blogger, etc... might not mean much but I felt like doing it...)

les gitans reviennent toujours
sur les lieux de leurs amours

Francoeur xx
(I should re-read myself for mistakes, grammage... but to lazy!