Books like Shadows on the Rock

With her signature descriptive powers and the ability to generate ambience and evoke vibrant visuals, Willa Cather delivers a story of early Québec (as named and spelled by the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain), from the Algonquin word kébec which meant “where the river narrows”. Although the province is now three times the size of France or the State of Texas, back then it was a small settlement perched along a set of cliffs and bluffs above the Saint Lawrence River in Canada.This story is about a particular point in time that saw the confluence of several historical figures in “New France” Quebec: Count de Frontenac, the Governor General of New France; (now Saint) Francis-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval, the first Bishop of Quebec; and Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, Bishop Laval’s successor. Although Bishop Laval himself had chosen Bishop Saint-Vallier to succeed him, he lived to regret the choice as Saint-Vallier appeared more interested in spending time in the French court of King Louis XIV than he was in saving souls in the wilderness across the Atlantic.Willa Cather cleverly sets her two main fictional characters close to all three historical figures. Euclide Auclair’s own father and grandfather served as physician and apothecary to Count de Frontenac in France. On his second return as Governor to New France, Count de Frontenac brought Euclide, his wife, and his 4-year-old daughter Cécile with him.When this novel opens, it is October of the year 1697, eight years after his arrival with his family and from the top of the cliff called Cap Diamant, he watches the last of the summer ships depart for France. We are immediately drawn in to his thoughts and feelings as it will be many months (the following July) before they see another ship arrive.Cécile is now 12 years old and since the death of her mother, she has taken over the domestic duties of the household. She has also followed her mother’s example and takes compassionate interest and care for an older man whose previous bone disease had so badly disfigured his face that people avoid him. Cécile also takes Jacques under her wing – a little boy of six whose mother is a notorious ‘lady of the night’. Cécile teaches him cleanliness, manners, and plays games and reads to him whenever she can. When she needs help with issues of conscience, she turns to Bishop l’Ancien (basically, former Bishop – although in practice Bishop Laval performed most of the duties since his successor spent so much time in France).I loved meeting the characters in this novel who effectively generate and maintain the plot of this novel. There are contrasts in lifestyles, in ideologies, and clashes between the three historical figures whose visions are identical, yet their determination of how to accomplish them appear irrevocably separated.As with other Willa Cather novels, I found myself caught up in the story she weaves and did not want to quit reading even when it was so late my eyes no longer wanted to stay open. Although in many ways, this novel is quiet and soothing, it is also compellingly fascinating.