UM Press republishes a classic Franco tale ‘Martel’ loosely based on author’s family

ORONO – New generations of Franco-Americans and others will have the opportunity to meet the fictional Martel family Thursday, as the University of Maine Press officially launches the republication of “Papa Martel,” the Franco-American classic novel by Lewiston author G?rard Robichaud.

First published in 1961 by Doubleday, the book remains a favorite in university classes and town library discussions. Long out of print, the novel has lived on via photocopies.

A novel in 10 parts, “Papa Martel” is the story of a close-knit Franco-American family headed by Louis Martel and his wife, C?cile. Set from 1919 to 1937 in the fictional Maine town of Groveton, a largely Franco and Catholic community loosely based on Lewiston, the story unfolds as the nine Martel children grow up and start families of their own.

For Franco-Americans in Maine and elsewhere, reading “Papa Martel” is akin to leafing through a beloved family scrapbook.

“The stories are all about my family, though they’re not all true,” 94-year-old author said in a telephone interview this week, during which he alternated between English and his native French. “I write about my family but this is fiction.”

Though fluent in both languages, Robichaud said, he writes his novels in English “because you can write [them] in French until you die, but you can’t sell them.”

Through the lives of the Martels, Robichaud depicts the closeness and strength of Franco-American families of that era, the role of the Catholic Church and its clergy in their daily lives. True to the storytelling traditions of Franco-Americans, Papa Martel, a traveling contract carpenter, fills his children with tales of Acadie, their ancestral homeland, while recalling his own youth.

“I wanted to show that we have our special way of laughing, of living, our joie de vivre,” Robichaud said.

Jim Bishop, a lecturer in English at UM, wrote the introduction to the new edition and was among several there who lobbied to have it republished.

“That ‘Papa Martel’ manages after all these years to home in under our highly developed radar and still touch us suggests a sustaining power beyond the surface appeal of the family’s winning ways,” he said.

Robichaud, whose father was also a carpenter, was born in the Beauce County region of Quebec in 1908 and grew up in Lewiston. He left Lewiston at the age of 12, two years after his mother died, to study in a seminary in Montreal, intending to become a priest.

He eventually left, however, and worked briefly at a bank in Connecticut before being drawn to New York City. He did not learn English until he was nearly 20. In 1941, Robichaud enlisted in the Army and served in the Pacific until 1945.

He returned New York on VJ Day and met his future wife, Elizabeth, that very night. The two wed in 1953.

“We did the city of New York from one end to the other,” Robichaud recalled Monday. “We saw all the best plays and shows, and went to the ballet and all of the other things New York has to offer.”

In 1951, Robichaud enrolled in a writing program at Columbia University.

“I had always wanted to write, so I wrote,” Robichaud said. “I began to write all these crazy stories because I wanted to be published.”

He met with little success, however, until at the urging of his wife he began chronicling the family stories he had shared with her and his Army buddies. Those stories formed the basis for “Papa Martel.”

Robichaud, who also published a novel titled “Apple of His Eye,” is now at work on a third book, “The Pearl of Great Price,” which he described as a story about sticking to one’s convictions set in Iwo Jima during WWII. He expects to complete it and send it to his agent this summer.

After that, he plans to write a fourth book, this one a love story based on his correspondence with his wife, Elizabeth, the love of his life.

“It was the happiest marriage,” he said. “I’ve lived a good life and I’m very lucky.”

The UM English Department, Franco-American Centre, Franco-American Studies Program and the University of Maine Press will co-host a book-signing reception and readings by Robichaud, and two other Maine Franco-American writers. Rhea Cote Robbins of Brewer, author of “Wednesday’s Child,” and Waterville native Gregoire Chabot, author of “Jacques Cartier Discovers America,” will read from their works during the event, from 4-6 p.m. Thursday at the Franco-American Centre in Crossland Hall. The new edition of “Papa Martel” will be on sale at the event, which is free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Those who plan to attend should contact Yvon Labbe at the Franco-American Centre, 581-3764 or labbe@maine.edu, or Jim Bishop, 581-3618 or JimBishop@umit.maine.edu.)