Patriots and Traitors

Hugh Oliver is Editor-in-Chief, OISE Press.

Mostly set in Montreal between 1885 and 1900, this novel begins on the
day that Louis Riel was hanged, an execution that sparked powerful
anti-English sentiments among French Canadians.

At a rally organized to condemn the execution, there is a meeting of
two worlds—that of the working-class revolutionaries (the patriots)
and that of the establishment (the traitors), dominated by the clergy
and for which Wilfrid Laurier is the spokesperson. The book’s main
character, the son of a foundry worker, is present when his father is
killed by police at the Riel rally. Subsequently, the boy is taken into
the care of an establishment family, and gradually he forgets his
working-class origins and is corrupted into joining the other side.

The beginning of this novel is reminiscent of Liam O’Flaherty’s
writing in Illusions Perdues. Throughout, the writing is simple and
powerful. Unfortunately, Patriots and Traitors represents only half a
novel, the first in a two-part series. The absence of any kind of
conclusion leaves one frustrated, wondering why the two parts weren’t
published as a single work. That would have made more sense, even if it
might have meant postponing the publication date.