1939 to 2021
Marie-Claire Blais
From Notes on a Writing Life 47, March 2023:
“My friend Marie-Claire Blais, whom I still miss on a daily basis, will have a plaque set upon her house in the Writers’ Compound on Windsor Lane, where John Hersey also once lived. A poem of hers will be set in the pavement there, I hear, and I want to include it here as it so clearly expresses her deep and humane self.”
Your most compelling purpose must be to free the human in you. Then you will understand that others really exist.
Votre but le plus impérieux doit être de libérer en vous l’humain. Ensuite vous comprendrez que les autres existent vraiment.
MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS 1939-2021
From Notes on a Writing Life 32, December 2021:
“She was also a genius at friendship. Generous, interested, always asking eagerly, “But how are you?””
“When I read it, I felt that about Marie-Claire – she will always be coming back home.”