About This Book
Like Carlos Fuentes, John Barth, Mario Vargas Llosa, and other masters of the new historical novel, Tom Marshall tells the story of Canada – from the War of 112 to the War Measures Act of 1970, from the Rebellion of 1837 to the Oka Crisis of 1990 – as a high adventure in self-referential style. At the center of the story is John Montgomery, who served under Sir Isaac Brock, hosted the launching of the 1837 Rebellion at his tavern on Yonge Street, and was imprisoned in Fort Henry before escaping across the river to Wolfe and then Carleton Island – the reverse route of the United Empire Loyalists used when fleeing America. After years of exile in New York State, he returned to Canada to become the patriarch of a distinguished line of writers, including Lucy Maud Montgomery and the author of this novel.
With the historical license that is characteristic of this genre, Marshall portrays Sir Isaac Brook as a gay general, presents Dan Aykroyd and The Tragically Hip on the same stage as Wee Willy Mackenzie and The Farmers Revolt, and takes evening walks to discuss the state of the nation with the Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald. Montgomery's story is often amusing and occasionally scandalous when the action returns to the present day shenanigans of contemporary politicians and musicians.
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Excerpt
I opened another beer. My fourth?
"One hundred and fifty years ago," I informed my son," Kingston had seven or eight thousand people, one of them the young John A. Macdonald, and had been made the capital of the united French and English Canadas. Queen's was founded the same year … After a great fire in 1840 came all the construction of these often eccentric buildings. Rich and pretentious people lived in them. Just outside pigs and poultry roamed, shitting and pissing where they would … alongside the destitute who lived in immigrant sheds near the waterfront. Others lay in the streets dead drunk. When Charles Dickens visited soon after the fire, he praised the prison as modern and progressive (which bogles the mind) …"
"So what? Who cares?
" I do, I care. I'm writing a 19th century historical novel."
