Last Days of Montreal

Kimberly J. Frail is a librarian in the Science and Technology Library
at the University of Alberta.

Public Services Librarian
University of Alberta Libraries
Bibliothèque Saint-Jean

In Last Days, freelance writer and translator John Brooke tackles the
political and social climate of Montreal in the throes of the 1995
“referendum hangover.” Most of the novel is set in a poor north-end
neighborhood inhabited mainly by francophones and immigrants. They live
in the typical “cheek-by-jowl” style of the north end,
simultaneously connected and separated by back lanes, fences, and
gardens.

Brooke presents this hidden underworld of furtive connections and dark
secrets as a microcosm of the social, political, and economic problems
Montreal experienced during this time period. There is the
“franзaise” who is completely detached from both the local politics
and her Anglo lover, who in turn is obsessed with clearing pathways in
the relentless winter snowfalls. There is the family of drug dealers,
including a junkie son. There is Pacci, the gruff, outspoken Italian who
can arrange for just about any type of tax-free service be it cigarettes
from the Mohawk reserve or concrete for the garage floor. There is the
foul-mouthed homeless (and legless) man who wheels in and out of the
lives of the main characters, challenging them to rage defiantly against
the city that is consuming them: “Go down moaning and screaming—or
laughing like me!”

Brooke’s treatment of post-referendum angst is not limited to the
typical English–French Canadian antagonism. He delves deeper,
exploring the sometimes politically incorrect means by which people seek
out hope or the promise of a better tomorrow. For example, the male
characters are united by a morning ritual that takes place at a
neighbourhood barber shop: as they watch a beautiful blonde woman get
dressed in front of her apartment window, they are infused with a
renewed sense of purpose and faith. Brooke’s skilfully written novel
evokes a sense of shock, sadness, and understanding.