[A Literary Affair will not convince us that Marie-Claire Blais's talent has come to maturity. The novel] describes Mathieu Lelièvre, a young Québécois writer who travels to Paris on a Canada Council grant in search of fame and self-discovery….

It is not the deliberately grim atmosphere that is embarrassing. Examining the novel for its literary quality, one is confused by its systematic character, its gratuitous extravagance, its falseness and emptiness. It is not the first story of the provincial or unknown artist seeking fame in the big city. Literary examples are numerous, as Mathieu Lelièvre knows, and one has in mind Balzac's and Proust's descriptions of the young writer trying to make it among the chosen few….

What is disappointing in A Literary Affair is that Marie-Claire Blais never gives us the feeling of Paris and its literary circles and the movement of ideas there. More important, she's unable to express the reality of the young hero's self-discovery. The milieu representing France is a grotesque caricature, and the crude opposition between the "good" and unpolished young Québécois and the "bad" and even monstrous [social] … milieu is simplistic and boring….

If Mathieu Lelièvre lacks humour and charm, if one is unable to identify with such an empty and sullen creature, Marie-Claire Blais still has talent with words. (p. 40)