Bitter Bread

A writer named Albert Laberge had written a coldly realistic novel on rural life, Bitter Bread, many years before Ringuet wrote his Thirty Acres. Laberge was obliged to publish his writings privately, but that does not explain why he was so overlooked and remained relatively unknown for many years. In his critical attitude to the clergy whom he treated like fallible human beings, and in the introduction of sex into a society where it was taboo, he broke new ground. He was ahead of his time. Bitter Bread throws some sharp darts in the direction of the Church. A bishop's visit is turned into a hilarious fiasco; a priest is served Javel water to drink, or liquor that has not been watered down. The uncharitable conduct of the characters is enough to disturb the Church. When the principal female character turns into a churchgoerlater on in the novel, it is presented as a painful experience for the priests, one that Laberge evidetly relishes in describing. The modern reader will consider the passages dealing with sex trivial, even funny, but such was not the case in the eary 1900s. A urinating contest, a woman raising her dress to insult a school teacher, two people having intercourse, the youthful heroine enjoying a certain pleasure when a calf licks her fingers, all this brought the wrath of the Church down on Laberge. Sex was taboo. Though the Church encouraged large families, it did not permit much discussion on the subject of sex itself. Laberge was thus condemned for having violated a sacred principle.