“We were listening to MusiquePlus”: delicious nostalgia for the 1990s

Marie-Josée Gauvin publishes the supra-nostalgic book “We listened to MusiquePlus”.

Host and author Marie-Josée Gauvin reminds Generation Y of their first love affairs, high school squabbles and other rollercoaster rides of adolescence in her captivating first novel, We listened to MusiquePlus, the start of an evocative trilogy of memories of an era from which nostalgic 35- and 40-year-olds are not always completely detached.  

We were listening to MusiquePlus will be a real treat for anyone who went through adolescence when Lucien Bouchard was the Premier of Quebec. Every page, or so, contains its reference to the pop culture of the moment: the magazines Today's Girls, Cooland Adorable >, the Jacob shops, L'Ombre de l'épervier, the special Let's Talk About Love from the J-Fist, Move Away, Internet disconnecting when you picked up the phone, She's got it all em> (She's All That), Claude Rajotte, Tommy Hilfiger clothes, the Tornado which was drunk “like juice”, mIRC and the ASVs… Marie-Josée Gauvin first spoiled herself herself by listing her little pleasures of yesteryear.  

“I continue to cite these landmarks in my everyday life. I feel like I learned about life through that culture. Me, I lived in Mistassini, and all I had to do was listen to MusiquePlus!”, confides the latter to Métro.  

Comfort

The only dedication at the beginning of the book is a “hidden” – because unexplained – nod to the film Summer Memories(Now and Then) that initiates will recognize. Admit that “it's going strong!” for the kids of yesterday! 

And that's without counting all the musical artists and songs named here and there, according to the very simple adventures of Manu, Catherine, Sophie and Rebecca, the four young girls protagonists who tame love, autonomy and self-confidence through their small and big dramas in their native Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean. Nothing that a trip to the Place du Royaume shopping center can console, but let's agree, at 14 or 15, knowing that our kick trippe about our best friend, it's kind of the end of the world. 

“I think the nostalgia is very comforting, and you feel like you belong to a gang >, analyzes Marie-Josée Gauvin. We say to ourselves that we, too, were experiencing this! And it arouses the curiosity of what we do not know. It's a way to cherish the great moments and keep them alive. We recognize each other. We existed! I don't find it loser at all.” 

The true of the false

However, beyond these little unifying candies, We listened to MusiquePlus is first and foremost a great story of friendship. Of those, unconditional, which cross the time. Because Marie-Josée Gauvin, 37, has had the same friends since she was 5.  

“We all kept our diaries and the letters we wrote to each other, my friends and I, she explains. But one day, fire broke out in my father's garage, and I lost the letters. As a birthday present, my best friend had all the correspondence she had kept printed in a notebook. And re-reading them, I couldn't believe how rich it was. The first desires, the first experiences… In the beginning, the book was a tribute to our friendship and to that time. It's true that, most of our time, we listened to MusiquePlus, that we were in pop culture, and that we were looking for our place with each other.” 

There are therefore a few real facts, and a few completely invented episodes in the book, the cover of which suggests a notebook that has been scribbled and carried around many times. And “this mystery will remain”, swears Marie-Josée, very eager to keep the secret on what is authentic or not. 

Between the beginnings of the day that she hosts at the microphone of Rouge, to La Gang du Matin, and the conception of the documentary I lost my baby, on perinatal bereavement, intended for Canal Vie, Marie-Josée Gauvin is concentrating on writing the second and third volumes of We listened to MusiquePlus. One will be devoted to the end of high school for its young heroines and the next, to their transition to CEGEP and the inevitable separation that ensues.  

“In the first, they put a toe in everything. While at 16 or 17 years old, they dive squarely into everything!”, specifies the designer, who will continue to sprinkle her story with titles from TV shows, records, fashions and other currents. 25 years ago in his writings, for the simple joy of making us dream.  

Already released in bookstores, We listened to MusiquePlus (24.95 $) is a publication of Éditions du Parc en face, the “young adult” thematic subsidiary of Éditions Les Malins, which has also just launched Catherine Girard-Audet's first non-children's novel, On don't shoot the flowers to make them grow.