It’s October 16, 1970, the morning the War Measures Act is brought into force in Quebec. Fifteen-year-old Gaétan Simard, who has just started working in a textile factory, arrives at the apartment of his older friend Luc Maheu, also a factory worker. They’re about to go for a beer at the tavern after Gaétan’s overnight shift the first week on the job, when unexpected visitors arrive.
Some readers of Bill Haugland may remember him from his tenure (from 1961 to 2006) as a journalist and reporter at CFCF-TV in Montreal. His profession has, evidently, given him the chops to shape a story succinctly and with empathy. His first two novels, Mobile 9 and The Bidding, are devoted to crime, danger, and mystery as experienced by his main character, television reporter Ty Davis. After the Rain is Haugland’s first short story collection, and each story skilfully builds suspense.
George Ellenbogen is a cartographer of the heart and of the memories it contains. In his memoir, A Stone in My Shoe: In Search of Neighbourhood, he maps the circumstances leading to his family’s immigration to Montreal from Europe in the years prior to World War II.
For those who enjoy depictions of that life, complete with sled dogs, snow, and a smattering of Algonquin vocabulary, Robert Poirier’s collection, On the Crow and Other Stories, might afford a pleasurable read.
Poetic language that is dense and rich can be like fruitcake: a fingerling or two is nice with tea, but the going gets rough after the fifth or sixth slice. The Traymore Rooms, a first novel by Montreal poet Norm Sibum, is almost 700 pages. That's a lot of fruitcake.
Norman Nawrocki’s first novel, CAZZAROLA! Anarchy, Romani, Love, Italy is a wild and bumpy ride through 130 years of Italian history as it follows four generations of Discordias, a fictional family of Italian anarchists. They have many stories to tell, and these unfold in a non-linear fashion, often squeezed through the lens of political struggles.
Bette Davis said, “Getting old is not for sissies.” That much is evident as we meet the often hilarious characters who roam the halls of Arleen Rotchin’s second novel, The Duchess of Cypress.
Fantastic Plotte, a new collection of Doucet’s earliest work from the late 1980s, reprints most of the stories from her fourteen self-published (photocopied and stapled, that is) mini-comics, or fanzines, notoriously titled Dirty Plotte (“plotte” being Quebecois slang for “cunt”) in their English or French original, and without corrections.
Jocelyne Dubois’ first novella is about the struggles that bring us back to square one. It’s about the heartbreaks we endure, overcoming mental illness, and becoming a better version of who we are. The story of World of Glass is infused with hope for a good life and love that is gradually built over time.
Inspector Luc Vanier and his partner Detective Sergeant Sylvie Saint-Jacques are taking on a wide range of opponents, some in the Establishment, some die-hard villains, and some in their own backyard, the Montreal Urban Police.
Lisa Hanawalt has been publishing her drawings, illustrations, and short comics in such places as The New York Times, The Believer, and Lucky Peach, as well as on a number of websites and in her own zines and mini-comics for several years now, and her bright colours and bizarre imagination are always a welcome jolt to both eyeballs and decorum.
