How to read fiction - Part 4 of 4
A sense of place in Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache's Series—Three Pines as a stage and refuge, a sanctuary found by people who are lost.
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I made a home in America. But I still feel a physical bond with my hometown. So much so, that when my mother had to move after my sister’s untimely death, I was doubly sad—I’d lost the place that rooted me in the world.
More ‘stuff’ comes at us from every corner of the planet and I’ve been thinking about what it means to belong—to feel accepted as you are. It’s easier to cope with painful emotions if there’s a deep connection with someone.
To belong goes beyond persons to physical places.
Whoever you are, a sense of belonging is important to see value in life. When we feel part of a community—at home or at work—things look up. We’re more motivated and inspired by acceptance, tend to lead healthier lives, and experience happiness.
Psychologists will tell you that a sense of belonging is a fundamental human need, that it predicts what happens to our mental, physical, social, and economic state. For something so important, there are still disparate perspectives as to how we create it.
In the last few years, I began to look for a place to call home. I love my home, but yearn for cultural experiences. I want my next move to be deliberate. As I talk to people, I hear similar stories—many are in search of meaning in a physical space.
While I’ve been exploring options for the past couple of years, I found a town that sounds fantastic on paper. It’s the fictional village of Three Pines, among the Eastern Townships of Quebec, Canada.
In Part 1, I included a brief review of the history and benefits of fiction, and the role of specific genres in culture—with a more detailed outline of the value of mystery/crime and historical fiction in society.
For Part 2, I switched more firmly onto the cultural value of historical fiction— with an exploration of C.S. Harris’ Sebastian St. Cyr novels in Regency-era England.
Part 3 is a review of how we brand a market mystery and crime—along with a review of characters and plot in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series.
In Part 4, I outline the value of place as the context—by analyzing how the characters in Canadian author Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache’s series relate to each other and their environment.
A sense of place
It might have a higher-than-normal number of murders, but Three Pines is a delightful place—full of charming businesses, quirky characters, and a beautiful natural backdrop.
To give the town its name are three large pine trees that dominate the common space. Three Pines is full of symbols, which we’ll review here.
Many of the characters I’ve encountered as I read Louise Penny’s1 mystery/crime series that features Chief Inspector Armand Gamache are from somewhere else. Most of them got lost or were at an inflection point in their lives.
When they happened upon the village, somehow these very different people of diverse backgrounds, ages, occupations, and social standing felt just like C.S. Lewis—they found a new home.
“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is what I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now.”
C.S. Lewis
Three Pines is not on any official maps. Which is why only people who are lost, and those who live (or have been) there can find it. But because of its allure, Louise Penny fans have found discovered physical places that resembles the imagined.
Ninety-five designated townships in southeastern Quebec make up the Eastern Townships. They’re about an hour’s drive east of Montreal. Vermont borders them to the south. The townships were built as a refuge. Loyalists who sided with the British in the American Revolution used three pines to signal the place was safe. They built houses in the Eastern Townships as a retreat from conflicts.
Many tribes of the Abenaki people were the original inhabitants and still live on the land. Abenaki names for lakes, mountains, and rivers are reminders of their home—including places like Magog, Memphremagog, Massawippi, Missisquoi, Megantic, Tomifobia, Coaticook and Yamaska.
“Three Pines wasn’t on any tourist map, being too far off any main or even secondary road. Like Narnia, it was generally found unexpectedly and with a degree of surprise that such an elderly village should have been hiding in this valley all along. Anyone fortunate enough to find it once usually found their way back.”
Still Life (book 1)
Penny drew inspiration from her own town of Knowlton for the bistro, the bookstore, the boulangerie, and the general store. In fact, her fans have identified Bistro Le Relais, Brome Lake Books, La Rumuer Affamee, and J.B. LeBaron General Store respectively as the real-life places for the stories.
“all my books are set in Quebec, where I live, in a small town just north of the Vermont border and south of Montreal in the fictional village called Three Pines. And Three Pines is really a kind of cauldron of creativity in one way or another.”
Louise Penny, interview
The Church of St. Adian is likely the fictional St. Thomas’s church where many a character finds respite. After her agent sold the first three books, to keep her places straight in relation to each other, Penny drew a map.
Upon insistent requests from readers, she then made the map available for download on her site. I didn’t know the maps existed until I began to write this article. I let my own imagination draw whatever I felt appropriate as I read.
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