Rating: 
Summary: Ma Belle Province
Review: As someone from Montreal, I was originally pretty defensive about what some outsider had to say about Quebec. In the end, I think its a good book for anyone who's interested in the province but doesn't know that much about it. Ok it doesn't cover everything, and yes, sometimes its a bit lo-o-ong on details, but he does a good job of talking with/about key people (anglos francos and others) in the province, and addressing the main issues there. Whether you agree with him or not is another matter, but then I don't think the time has yet arrived where anyone will be able to write The Definite Book on Quebec that everyone will agree with.
Rating:
Summary: Ma Belle Province
Review: Dotcha just love people who, after living in a place for a short while, presume to pronounce upon its mores and morals in an incredibly arrogant fashion? Ya do? You'll love this book, then.
Rating: 
Summary: Oh, please
Review: Dotcha just love people who, after living in a place for a short while, presume to pronounce upon its mores and morals in an incredibly arrogant fashion? Ya do? You'll love this book, then.
Rating: 
Summary: excellent read!
Review: I could not put this book down and I loved his writing style! Fun, informative and thought provoking. What more could you ask for? My grandmother was Quebecois but I knew nothing about Quebec and Canada. Now I feel like I have a pretty good basis for understanding and learning more about Canada and it's place in the world. A lot of his discussions he applies to the U.S. as well. He's mastered the interconnections between people, places, events and history and presents them so well.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: I have considered moving to Quebec and this book has made me both want to move there immediately and also be cautious about it - that's how evenhanded his writing is. I feel like I have learned a lot about the people of Quebec, more than one can learn from a travel guide or a history book. His writing style practically takes you there. If you are interested in learning about the real Quebec and can't go there yet, this is the next best thing. I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: A fantastic look at Quebec
Review: I have considered moving to Quebec and this book has made me both want to move there immediately and also be cautious about it - that's how evenhanded his writing is. I feel like I have learned a lot about the people of Quebec, more than one can learn from a travel guide or a history book. His writing style practically takes you there. If you are interested in learning about the real Quebec and can't go there yet, this is the next best thing. I highly recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: A terrific cultural introduction to Quebec
Review: I picked up this book at the Montreal airport and have hardly been able to put it down. While it glosses over Quebecois history, it does a thorough job of examining major dimensions of Quebecois culture. The chapter on French language in Quebec is especially funny. Probably a better read if you know a little French.
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Summary: Québec in a nutshell...
Review: I saw a review of "Sacré Blues" in a Canadian newspaper (I don't remember which one) and decided that, since I was in Québec and frankly quite clueless regarding many aspects of Québec history and culture, I picked up a copy at an Archambault in Sainte-Foy. I had resolved to put it away for the return train trip to Toronto, but I started reading a little bit each night. At some points in the book I was laughing out loud so much my neighbours must have wondered about my sanity. I spent a month in Québec and plan to return often, and "Sacré Blues" helped me to understand some of the issues in modern Québec. I have taken a Québécois civilisation course, but there are many topics in the book that elaborated on things we had touched on in class, such as Québécois winters, language, popular culture, famous people, the strange and fascinating addiction to cholesterol-laden food (poutine! May Wests! Pepsi!), tabloid newspapers, politics, the Floribécois (retired Québécois who migrate in droves to Florida every winter), Céline Dion, and much, much more. Grescoe writes with tongue-in-cheek humour that sometimes amounts to laugh-out-loud guffawing, such as the Québec Language Police...something that I evidence firsthand. Some of the topics seemed to go on for much too long, but generally the book is funny and informative, sort of a mini-introduction to Québec. Very well written, with a glossary of terms and famous Québécois, important dates, and cultural notes.
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Summary: Great book!
Review: I've never lived in Quebec - only visited briefly several times. I've always believed Quebec is a very different province from the rest but could never quite explain it to my fellow anglophones any better than my superficial experiences there. The author does an amazing job in explaining the depth of Quebec's culture and what makes it truely unique within Canada. It's not excessively historical or political but offers enough background on most aspects of the Quebecois to help the rest of us gain a better understanding.
Rating:
Summary: Unsacred Blues
Review: Sacre Blues is an absorbing read that traces the (d)evolution of popular culture in Quebec from the founding of homogenous French settlements along the St. Lawrence to the present day cosmopolitan society. The reader is treated with the author's exegetic struggle to make sense of the seemingly multifaceted and contradictory dimensions underlying the Quebecois psyche. Thus a broad spectrum of cultural icons and social mores are examined from writers, pop divas, sports figures, television shows, cuisine, and English/French relations to the perennial debates on sovereignty. My major criticism lies with the authors's lack of gravitas, his unidimensional (mis)understanding of the fundamental role that Catholicism played in forging a civilization replete with spiritual values in what would otherwise be a frozen wasteland. The author reductively whitewashes religion and Catholicism in particular as an opiate of the masses, impeding the emancipation of the populace. Grescoe errs in selecting the Virgin Mary as the emblematic archetype to grace the front cover. Rather, Sainte Anne, patron saint of Quebec would have been the appropriate cultural symbol. Religion aside, "Sacre Blues" is a classic of sorts, a thoroughly enjoyable investigation of Quebec society
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