Lucienne, the Simple-Minded

Here is the story of three generations of women from Quebec that touches upon the emigration to New England in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. It is woven of adventures and events striking enough to elicit a genuine interest in those who enjoy the effects of the passion of love, the close attachment to one’s vibrant heritage, the challenge of emigration, the chagrin of death, and the upsetting moments of a young woman who is caught in the web of intellectual incapacities and is labeled as retarded while constantly haunted by it. She is known as Lucienne, the simple-minded. Her story brings us to the fate of the millworkers who struggle to make a living in the textile industry. Sown in this captivating story is the desperate love story of a young woman who falls in love with an Algonquin Indian who is doomed by the fate of the Canadian boarding school policy. Part of the long story is that of Héloïse Lanouette Charbonneau who is Lucienne’s mother, and the first in the long line of Lanouettes to emigrate to the United States. Lucienne is a fascinating character in this novel who belongs to generations of natural healers who affect compassionately the lives of many. Added to this story are the many colorful threads that reveal the patterns of the historical reality of the challenges, struggles, and accomplishments of a people eventually known as the Franco-Americans.