Dominique Fortier’s debut novel gets the star treatment

By Walter J. Lyng

There are some authors who will never get the kind of recognition for any of their books that Dominique Fortier has had for her debut effort Du bon usage des étoiles. On Sept. 9, the English translation will be released entitled On the Proper Use of Stars.

Inspired by the story of Sir John Franklin’s failed quest to discover the Northwest Passage, Fortier was initially introduced to the material via an episode of PBS’s Nova. She then discovered that Franklin’s place in history is emphasized much more outside of Quebec.

“In Anglophone Canada there is, I gather, a real tradition of Franklin [stories],” she says.

“Strangely enough in Quebec, it’s a story that’s not known at all. It’s not part of our history. In other parts of Canada, children learn about the Franklin expedition in school and it’s in all the history books. Here, not so much.”

It was the stark Arctic imagery that appealed to Fortier, specifically one sequence.

“There was one image in particular that stuck with me,” she says.

“After having spent two years in the ice, the men started to understand that they wouldn’t be able to just sail away. They had filled the boats with everything they could cram into them like candlesticks and shoe polish and the most ridiculous things … and they started walking on the ice.

That was the basis of the novel. These men were [gone from home for two years] and they still couldn’t leave England behind because they were still carrying it on their backs … literally.”

Fortier saw this incident as being demonstrative of more general patterns of behaviour.

“It says a bit about how we are as humans,” she says. “We’re never really willing to change or embrace something we don’t know.”

Fortier’s own unknown has been English writing. While she is clearly proficient in the language’s use, she admits to not being comfortable enough with it to attempt her own translation. Fortunately, Fortier is more than pleased with the work translator Sheila Fischman has done.

“I love it,” she says. “My boyfriend actually thinks it’s better in English than it is in French. It feels so natural to hear those characters speaking English because that was their language in real life. Sheila Fischman is the most talented translator in the world, or at least Canada. She did such a wonderful job. I’m very, very proud of the English version, even if I didn’t have that much to do with it.”

If you don’t think getting the translation treatment done on your book is a big enough honour, how about the screenplay treatment? Fortier is currently working with director Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y.) on a film adaptation of her novel.

“It’s like a real quick Master’s class,” she says of this new endeavor. “It’s a humbling experience. I find that everything that makes you a good novel fiction writer doesn’t help at all when you’re trying to write a script. Jean-Marc’s a wonderful teacher, obviously. He’s not just a filmmaker, he’s a great scriptwriter and that’s the part of the job that he really likes. He’s kind of happy to teach it to someone, I think. I feel lucky to even have had the chance to work with him.”

Fortier says the film might still be a couple of years away because of Vallée’s desire to make the project a co-production with the U.K. Right now, however, she’s pretty content as it is with her work of imagined history.

“Most first novels, only a couple of people read them and that’s it,” she says. “So I never even dreamed of this happening. I didn’t want to make this a real historical thing. I didn’t want to give the impression of absolute truth. I just wanted it to be credible and for people to get involved with it and learn to love the characters.”