The City in the Egg

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

During the 1970s, Montreal playwright Michel Tremblay challenged
mainstream Canadian theatre. This open homosexual and outspoken
separatist redefined Québécois drama by having his working-class
characters represent their society in their own joual vernacular.

Don’t look for the revolutionary French-Canadian dramatist in The
City in the Egg. There are no fat East End Montreal housewives or
archetypal downtown drag queens here. Instead, Tremblay offers fantasy
sci-fi а la Gene Roddenberry.

The plot is routine and unoriginal. A manuscript is discovered in the
smoldering ruins of Francois Laplante Jr.’s house. An omniscient
narrator presents a chronicle of Laplante’s journeys inside an unusual
egg-shaped stone. The protagonist reveals that he is trapped in a
mysterious city, embroiled in the intrigues of gods, “Khjoens,” and
other alien beings. He wishes to leave, but not surprisingly they have
other plans for him.

This novel, unlike Tremblay’s plays, contains no apparent subtext
laced with insights on Quebec society and human nature; the average
episode of Star Trek has more depth. Nor is the book juvenile sci-fi;
the protagonist’s “Uncle Charles” mutilates his wife and “Gho,
the dwarf,” a fallen god, procreates with a vestal virgin in a public
ceremony.

The City in the Egg was written in 1968, the year in which Tremblay’s
seminal work, Les Belles Soeurs, was first performed. The original
edition was first published in 1969 and the English translation appeared
30 years later. One could draw two conclusions about this 30-year gap.
Francophiles could assert that it took three decades for obtuse
anglophone publishers to recognize Québécois genius. Others might
state that only the author’s prestige sparked editorial interest.

Literary scholars need not choose sides. This novel offers them, and
others, the opportunity to study Canadian genius in a nascent state.