Books for grown-ups by Jean Pouliot
The Versed of Times— laments for an imperiled nation (PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 2023)
The years 2016-2022 were perilous for the United States as we transitioned from an Administration noted for its calm and class to one noted for its vulgarity, continuing scandals, and, unbelievably, an insurrection that brought death and violence to the halls of the Capitol itself.
Throughout this period, author Jean Pouliot turned to verse to make sense of the times and the gain some measure of control over them -- at least in his own mind and soul. These verses, sometimes incisive, sometimes humorous, sometimes anguished, let the reader share in the tumultuous rollercoaster ride that was the Obama-Trump era.
The SINGING BRIDGE (Published May 2024)
The Singing Bridge is a remembrance of and paean to my mill town upbringing in Manchester, NH in the 1960s. The period was a fraught one for Franco Americans, whose forebears had come to the United States intending to maintain their culture among les Anglais, the English-speaking citizens of their new land. Starting in the 1830s, but drastically accelerating in the 1880s, Québecois streamed by the tens of thousands to America, driven out by failing farms and poverty. By the post-WWII period, their descendants had been rubbing shoulders with non-French and non-Catholics, and the former taboos against assimilation were breaking down. By the 1960s, when I grew up, ethnic and Catholic culture were under threat from assimilation as well as new Church practices introduced by Vatican II. Born with a foot in each world, I observed the tumult from the inside. The elapsing of decades has given me the luxury to take the longer view, letting me appreciate much of what went unnoticed or unappreciated at the time. There was much that was beautiful and even marvelous in my old mill town. In this book, I hope to share that with you.
FACE LAITE—Growing up French-Catholic in the age of Cape Canaveral, Camelot and Captain Kangaroo (Due August 2025)
As Vietnam and assassinations roiled the 1960s American cultural landscape and the Second Vatican Council upended centuries of Roman Catholic practice and worship, the descendants of French-Canadian immigrants in New England faced their own reckoning: the loss of their defining language. Jean Pouliot experienced these clashing currents as a boy, and in Face Lite, tries to make sense of the world that was passing, the one coming into being and the people either pushing forward or trying to hold back the tides of change.
Age: Teen to adult
The Psimple Psalter Volume 1: Psalms 1-25 (Due October 2025)
The psalms are such wonderful prayers but can be hard to sing. Jean Pouliot has created singable melodies that allow you to intone or sing the psalms no matter which translation you prefer!
The Book of Unlikely Saints (in progress)
Learn the somewhat inspiring and slightly off-kilter stories of saints who didn’t quite make the cut into the Roman Catholic calendar. Lavian the Lepherd, Pierre le Poseur, Blessed Cletus of Missouri, The Very Stinky Virgins or Rome. And many more!
Age: teen to adult