The Male of the Species

M. Morgan Holmes teaches English at McGill University.

At a time when traditional Western notions of sexuality, gender, and
nationality are being subjected to intense scrutiny in academic circles,
the arts, and the news media, Matthew Hart performs a high-spirited
anatomy of the English presence in Quebec, and the untenable values of
family life and moral decency that underwrote their presence. In this
novel, Noel and Lucy and their two sons, Dave and Bill, are the last
vestiges of the once regal Swan family, which gained its place in
Canadian society with the defeat of the French by the British on the
Plains of Abraham. Nestled in their decaying mansion in the village of
Como, just upriver from Montreal, the Swans face the sexual and cultural
revolutions of the 1950s.

While this may sound like a grim read, Hart fashions characters whose
well-defined personalities offer a complex picture of a changing world
and the differing responses to it. There is genuine pathos in Noel’s
decision to abandon his law practice in Old Montreal after his father
dies. His memories of his conflicted relationship with his father at
first torment him, but ultimately become a form of liberation. The
unpleasant reality of economic hardship that Noel’s decision provokes
in turn challenges Lucy to refashion herself from a traditional figure
of female docility into a person who draws on her own strengths to
protect what she values.

The Male of the Species engages the current rethinking of gender
stereotypes in a humorous and tender way without succumbing to preachy
moralizing. The numerous protosexual encounters between Dave (who is 12)
and his girlfriend Nick (who is 13) speak most to how each new
generation has the opportunity to engage in sexual pleasure without the
limitations of power hierarchies. Nick becomes the practical sexual
teacher of Dave by “seizing some decisive edge, a position of
leadership, as naturally hers.” While it is unclear if this is a mere
inversion of stereotypes, Hart’s point seems to be that Dave will
learn to understand the necessity of equality and openness in human
relations, sexual and otherwise. Unfortunately, these possibilities for
personal development do not extend beyond the boundaries of
heterosexuality; the one joke about “hormone sexuals” as
underdeveloped heterosexuals is trite and unwarranted in this generally
sensitive book.