The Tin Flute is a French Canadian classic, and the title has lost something in translation- its original French title is Bonheur d’occasion, or ‘Secondhand Happiness’, which is both more poetic and more descriptive. Set in Montreal in the 1940s, Tin Flute follows the Lacasse family, who live in St Henri, a poor French neighbourhood near Montreal’s industrial areas. The novel focuses largely on the Lacasse’s eldest child, Florentine. She is 19 and working as a waitress at a diner, funneling her income towards her […]
Secondhand happiness
The Tin Flute by Gabrielle Roy