Podcast: Interview with Roch Carrier (1987)

Roch Carrier, in 2017. (Photo: Ryan Remiorz)

From 1981 to 1989, I was assistant producer and co-host of the radio show On the Arts, at CJRT-FM (today Jazz 91.1) in Toronto. With the late Tom Fulton, who was the show's prime host and producer, we did a half-hour interview program where we talked to writers and artists from all fields. In 1987, I sat down with celebrated Québécois novelist, playwright and children's author Roch Carrier.

In 1987, his novel Heartbreaks Along The Road (De l'amour dans la ferraille, 1984) had just appeared in English translation. Born in 1937, Carrier is most famous for his 1979 short story "The Hockey Sweater" and his landmark 1968 play La Guerre, Yes Sir! Recipient of the Order of Canada and winner of the Stephen Memorial Medal for Humour, Carrier remains one of Quebec and Canada's best-known and most beloved writers.

– Kevin Courrier.

Here is the full interview with Roch Carrier as it aired on CJRT-FM in 1987.

Kevin Courrier is a freelance writer/broadcaster, film critic and author (Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa, Randy Newman's American Dreams, 33 1/3 Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, Artificial Paradise: The Dark Side of The Beatles Utopian Dream). Courrier teaches part-time film courses to seniors through the LIFE Institute at Ryerson University in Toronto and other venues. His forthcoming book is Talking Out of Turn: A Collection of Reviews, Interviews and Remembrances currently being assembled on Blogger. 

Tom Fulton was the host and producer of On the Arts for CJRT-FM in Toronto for 23 years, beginning in 1975.