Operation Rimbaud.

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Montreal intellectual Jacques Godbout is an honoured filmmaker and author. This Québécois stalwart may be best known to anglophone readers as the author of Hail, Galarneau!, the translated version of a novel which won a 1967 Governor General’s Literary Award. Operation Rimbaud, originally published in French in 1999, is a picaresque narrative that mixes history, religion, and intrigue.

In 1967, Father Michel Larochelle, a worldly Jesuit, is enlisted by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie to smuggle the stones that bear the Ten Commandments out of his increasingly unstable kingdom. Godbout does not merely chronicle the ultimate heist, he also gives us a protagonist who is torn between his religious commitments and his baser impulses. Young Michel’s father, Georges, exposed him to idealistic adventure novels but also advised him to “Join the Jesuits … You’ll always get your bed and board.” This childhood ambivalence renders him vulnerable to the 1960s secularist currents that profoundly affected Quebeckers. Temptation and disillusion further erode his faith.

Godbout’s portrait of an era is enhanced by his use of famous historical figures. In addition to the aforementioned monarch, Father Larochelle meets the notorious LSD advocate, Dr. Timothy Leary, aboard a French ocean liner. He even receives a “bristol card” from Pope Paul VI himself. Some references are meant to appeal to knowledgeable readers. To such people, “Colonel Mengistu” is the ruler’s revolutionary successor. On the other hand, the phrase, “The Somali pirates…” was not topical when the original version of the novel was written.

The author integrates entertainment is into the plot’s intellectual foundations; Larochelle’s sexual encounters and violent skirmishes also further his soul’s corruption. Operation Rimbaud is proof that intellect and action can be successfully combined in an adventure story.