Equivocal City: French and English Novels of Postwar Montreal by Patrick Coleman (review)

This book presents a much-needed comparative approach to works written in both English and French in Montreal. In his introduction, Coleman sets out the rationale for his project in a clear, concise manner, advocating for a new approach to studies which have heretofore been separate:

This book offers a fresh approach to the Montreal novel by looking at the French- and English-language fictions of the city in counterpoint with each other, not as speaking within separate literary traditions but as offering mutually illuminating examples of the kinds of story that could be written about the city at successive moments in its life.

(p. 3)

Examining the city itself as a 'node in a diverse global network of meanings and relationships' (p. 12), Coleman puts two linguistic traditions in conversation with each other as he retraces the development of literature in the city in the 1940s (Hugh McLennan, Gwethalyn Graham, Gabrielle Roy) and the 1950s (a study of civic consensus in the fiction of the period, an examination of anglophone satire and genre at large at the end of the decade, and the francophone novels which were published prior to the Quiet Revolution), and ends on the 1960s fantastic experimental novels written by Jacques Ferron and Leonard Cohen. Offering a reading of fourteen works of fiction, Coleman's book focuses on both the narrative structures and the convergences and divergences between the works. It provides a clear and comprehensive account of the struggles experienced by both anglophone and francophone writers, 'to oversimplify a complicated history of political, religious, or cultural self-identifications in each language' (p. 314) as they struggled with life in the city and the linguistic compartmentalisation of society.

While I wondered why the material studied was predominantly written by men, Coleman makes a good case for thinking through the realities of the time: the voices which were allowed to come through, as well as the publishers who permitted these voices to reach their audience. Equally, it references other works published at the same time in American literature, allowing the reader to situate the specificities of Montreal's literary culture in the broader American context. Written in a succinct and excellent prose, this book is an easy read, which uses a range of analytical frameworks to contribute to existing debates. The book's format, style and structure lend themselves to any type of reading: whether for students who wish to glean more information about the importance of the city of Montreal as a locus for relationships and hardships in the post-war period, or as teaching material for a course on Montreal and the history of its literature as an intricate dance involving both English and French literary traditions. Indubitably, Coleman's Equivocal City is a must-read for anyone interested in the complex linguistic and literary history of Montreal and the many ways this informs the 'here and now' (p. 325).