French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood chronicles the life of Denis Ledoux, a Mainer born in 1947. His life is typical of many Franco-Americans of his generation until it isn’t. You will find French Boy to be an important addition to your library of Franco-American books and you will appreciate how it adds to your understanding of Maine’s ethnically diverse communities in the last century.

385 pages

French Boy shines a spotlight on our complex Franco history and rich culture, and I found many points of connection throughout. You will, too.

— Susan Poulin, playwright (Pardon My French!), author (Finding Your Inner Moose), blogger (Just Ask Ida)

French Boy put me in awe of Denis Ledoux’s talent, work ethic, good sense, and common humanity. These qualities add up to a touch of genius, which in summary displays Ledoux’s ability to bring drama and feeling, as well as meaning, to the reportage of ordinary life.

French Boy deepens and expands our understanding of American history. For people like myself, a grandson of old Canada, it is a gift. Thank you, Denis Ledoux.

— Ernest Hébert, novelist, Whirlybird Island

French Boy is a story of grit, self-discovery, and it offers an understanding of one’s Franco-ness. For those who know

Franco-American history or those on a journey to find it, Denis Ledoux’s story telling will inspire.

— Ryan Fecteau, former Speaker, Maine House of Representatives

In French Boy, Denis Ledoux paints an intimate and informative portrait of his Franco-American boyhood in 1950s Maine, where he felt “separate from the present which seemed foreign—and American.” Ledoux’s abiding affinity for story enriches this tale of a thoughtful boy seeking more than his parents could provide.

— Steven Riel, poet, Edgemere

With vivid and painstaking detail, Denis Ledoux recreates Maine’s Franco-American community as it was when he was growing up in the 1950s. His memoir is so close to life as then lived that it evokes both pride and pain, regret and remembrance, in equal measure.

— Douglas Rooks, First Franco: Albert Beliveau in Law, Politics and Love