“…Durnford also spells out Lévesque’s reluctance to embrace radical and extremist means of achieving sovereignty; he believed in the democratic process, and it often put him at odds with separatist hardliners. He left the Liberals in 1967 and became involved with the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association, which evolved, a year later, into the Parti Québecois—and the rest, as they say, is history. Part of the Amazing Stories series, this book puts a human face to a political icon.
(The Gazette, June 23, 2006)
“Durnford is a Montreal journalist who possesses a strong sense of the dramatic and a deep-seated empathy for her subject, his compatriots, and Québecois culture. Her book regularly invokes revealing lesser-known historical facts that not only bring to life the disheveled, chain-smoking Lévesque, but also serve as a window into the larger, more sophisticated themes—such as repression, idealism and identity—that defined his era…..Durnford has admittedly written a vibrant, engaging portrait of the man who “personified the modern province he helped to create.” In the end, the greatest compliment one could give is to emphasize that this book is successful in its fundamental purpose: It will inspire those who are unfamiliar with Quebec’s history to learn more about this beautifully complicated place we call home.
(Hour magazine, March 23-29, 2006)