Thoughts on Petites Difficultes d’Existence

France Daigle’s Petites Difficultes d’Existence is a beautiful example of what happens when  Acadian identity rubs up against love, being a woman, having children, being an artist, intellectuaism  and even the language you use to express yourself. The novel opens with Carmen contemplating Terry’s note, “J’ai decide de t’aimer a mort,” and ends with Carmen squeezing Terry’s arm in response to Terry’s idea of love. Intersperced throughout are lessons from the Yi King (a phonetic spelling of the Chinese Yi Jing or book of changes), which Carmen bought for Terry and he tells us comes from her. Change is indeed the theme of the novel, Zed becoming more and more an artist, the creation of the Loft, Noel, the introduction of the French couple Carmen and Terry met in France, and even the evaluation of the Chiac dialect due to Carmen’s worry about her child and the one about the be born learning it. Daigle asks us to reevaluate traditional Acadian culture in an intriguing way – defineately one I’ll read again and again.