In 1978 Tremblay abandoned the dramatic form and published La Grosse Femme d'à côté est enceinte, the first novel of his proposed trilogy, Chroniques du plateau Mont-Royal. In effect a continuation of the cycle of Les Belles Soeurs, with a similar decor, language, and some of the same characters, seen now as children, this trilogy here offers its second volume, Thérèse et Pierrette à l'école des Saints-Anges. As in the preceding novel, one notes the use of short récits, dialogues in joual, biting caricatures, and the fantastic. One also meets again Albertine, sister-in-law of la grosse femme, although the emphasis is now on her daughter, Thérèse, and on her friends.

Thérèse et Pierrette is prefaced by a significant quotation from John Irving's The World According to Garp on the preference for imagining rather than remembering. Tremblay's novel, however, is a successful mélange of both mental activities. It is divided into four chapters, called movements, and each one represents both one day and one movement of Brahms' Fourth Symphony, with characteristic notations of allegro, andante, and the like. Its action occurs one month after that of the first novel: 1-4 June 1942 in Montreal.

Exuding Tremblay's typical cynical humor and obscenity, the work is a delightful chronicle of a trio of pre-adolescent girls, "Thérèse pis Pierrette": the pretty Thérèse, Pierrette with her protruding teeth, and Simone, the hair-lipped child miraculously attractive after an operation. Their friendship, personal and familial relationships, and daily lives at a religious school are all skillfully interwoven by the author.

It is precisely that school, along with its mother superior, teaching nuns, and parish priest, that is the main object of Tremblay's satire. He condemns both the school and its convent, where there reigns a network of ambitious, hypocritical women choosing sacrificial submissiveness and living in a repressive atmosphere. Their prototype is the unforgettable mère Benoîte des Anges, "mère Dragon du Yable," who hates children and enjoys humiliating and terrorizing others. Her male counterpart is monseigneur Bernier, a wicked, political manipulator who loves personal victory. This couple is placed in conflict with the gentle, doubting soeur Sainte-Catherine, her dearest friend, soeur Sainte-Thérèse, the obese soeur Sainte-Philomène, and soeur "Pied-Botte." All are deeply involved in the preparations for the altar that will be the highlight of the annual procession for Corpus Christi. Cynically portrayed as "presque paien" and "presque funèbre," this procession is predictably ruined in a final scene of pandemonium.

Although excited about their chosen roles in this religious ceremony, the schoolgirls are equally concerned with other matters: Thérèse's vague sexual awakening, as she is lustfully desired by an adult man; and their families, with Simone's devoted mother and the complaining, bitter, and yet pitiful mother of Thérèse.

And then, described by his mother as either crazy or a future poet, there is Thérèse's four-year-old brother, Marcel, who, along with his great oncle, Josaphat-le-Violon, and his grandmother, Victoire, consoles himself with his imaginary, talking cat, Duplessis (adversary of the dog, Godbout, in La Grosse Femme), and with the stories and music of four imaginary women. Refusing to accept repressive Catholicism, imposed upon them by Jansenist priests, this sensitive group prefers to dream, as they listen to the beautiful oral legends of their homeland.

Michel Tremblay's latest novel is an exceedingly enjoyable book; we should anxiously await the publication of La Duchesse et le roturier, the third novel of this commendable trilogy. (pp. 444-45)