Volkswagen Blues

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Volkswagen Blues is a novel by Canadian writer Jacques Poulin. Volkswagen Blues was published in French in 1984; it was translated into English by Sheila Fischman and published by McClelland & Stewart in 1988 and subsequently re-issued by Cormorant Books in 2002. In 2005, it was selected as one of the five books in CBC Radio's Canada Reads program.

Volkswagen Blues was one of the selected novels in the 2005 edition of Canada Reads, where it was championed by author and former National Librarian of Canada, Roch Carrier.

Volkswagen Blues is a road story about a writer named Jack and his search for his long-lost brother, Théo. Along the way, Jack picks up a hitchhiker, a young Aboriginal woman, named "La Grande Sauterelle" (because of her long, grasshopper-like legs) and her cat, Chop Suey.

Together, they travel from Gaspé to San Francisco, exploring the history of European contact with the native people of the Americas. Along the way they discuss language, the Oregon Trail and their trip becomes a metaphor for the history of the French in North America. Throughout the novel a number of interesting and entertaining characters pop up, including Sam Peckinpah, Saul Bellow, Al Capone and Auguste Renoir.