Quebec: A Tale of Love is Laurier LaPierre’s attempt at explaining the current state of Quebec and how it got that way. A historian and broadcaster, LaPierre has written several books about his native province. This one joins Bowering’s BC and Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea in Penguin’s ongoing series of provincial histories.

The amateur historian will find much to love in the book, which is, at heart, an easy-to-read presentation of Quebec’s history. As LaPierre moves forward in time, he frequently includes passages from the writings of the historical figures under discussion. In the last section, for example, he quotes long passages from René Lévesque’s memoirs, detailing why Lévesque felt betrayed by the “night of the long knives” when the other provincial premiers agreed on how to patriate the constitution.

Interspersed with this fairly straightforward exposition, LaPierre recounts fictional “visits” by the spirits of the people he is writing about. Like those actors one encounters dressed in costume at historic sites such as Louisbourg and Fort William, LaPierre’s creations are designed to give history a living human face. The attempt isn’t always successful. LaPierre was much more successful when he imagined conversations with participants at the Plains of Abraham in The Battle for Canada, but then his canvas was smaller, allowing more room for detail.

LaPierre’s emotional attachment to Quebec and to the people he calls “Canadiens” is obvious throughout this enjoyable book, yet he has been based primarily in Vancouver since 1979. A Québécoispure laine, he now seems more comfortable writing in English than in French. Perhaps this is an illustration of the pressures francophones still face, living on a continent where English is by far the dominant language.