Maxime Raymond Bock animates Morel with a time-tested literary premise: That even seemingly unremarkable human lives are worthy of examination. That such examination, when conducted with empathy, specificity, and a generosity of spirit, may yield truths about yearning, regret, and redemption — in other words, the big questions.
Published in French in 2021 and recently translated into English by Melissa Bull, the novel follows Jean-Claude Morel, a mid-century construction worker who bears witness to and participates in Montreal’s transformation from a soot-choked industrial centre to a cosmopolitan cultural capital. It unearths parts of a city lost to urban development — including the Faubourg à m’lasse neighbourhood, named for the smell of molasses from West Indies trading ships and demolished in the ’60s and ’70s — just as it evokes the many pains and joys of working-class life in the vanishing landscape.
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Sam White is a researcher and copywriter in Toronto. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto’s creative writing program.
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