3 books you should read set in Montreal
CBC Books associate producer Talia Kliot was born and raised in Montreal. Although she now lives in Toronto, Montreal will always have a very special place in her heart.
Kliot is especially drawn to books that describe Montreal with a level of love and care that elevates the city to character in and of itself.
She spoke to The Next Chapter's Antonio Michael Downing about three different books set in her hometown.
The Reeds by Arjun Basu
The Reeds follows one family as they navigate a summer of change. Set in Montreal, the novel sees the Reed family each experiencing their own trials and tribulations. Mimi is seeing success with her business while her husband Bobby has just lost his job. Their son Abbie is trying to turn his online fame into a career while daughter Dee attempts to discover who she really is. Reflecting the realities of the modern environmental and political climates, The Reeds depicts a family struggling to find their place in the world and the hope people find in the face of challenge.
Arjun Basu is a Montreal-based author and podcast host. His novel Waiting for the Man was longlisted for the 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The Reeds resonated with Talia because it takes place in much of the same area that she grew up in.
"Arjun Basu is also a Montrealer like me, and he grew up on the West part of the island, kind of the more anglophone area, which is also where I grew up.
"He calls it the 'unsexy' part of Montreal. I don't agree with that. I think there's there's a lot of charm to the West side of Montreal, but he's showing a side of Montreal that we don't really get to see in the classic Montreal books that you imagine — the downtown, the plateau, the old port, all of those things.
He's showing a side of Montreal that we don't really get to see in the classic Montreal books that you imagine — the downtown, the plateau, the old port, all of those things.- Talia Kliot
"It takes you to the more suburban area, showing the day-to-day life of people who don't live so central.
"It's not a huge trek, but it was just so cool because in the book he doesn't really name any of the places. But I read an interview where he said, "Oh, and this is this street and this is that street." And I was like, yeah, that's exactly what I was picturing, which is just — I just felt so cool. It's like an insider kind of experience."
Naked: The Confessions of a Normal Woman by Éloïse Marseille
Naked: Confessions of a Normal Woman is a candid and funny memoir that follows author Éloïse Marseille as she explores her sexuality and learns to live free of shame. From her first kiss with her best friend to dating app hookups, the lively illustrations bring her story to life in an way that is both empowering and raw.
Éloïse Marseille is an artist and illustrator from Montreal. Naked: Confessions of a Normal Woman is her first book.
Kliot says this book was a different take on the city that the illustrations really brought to life.
"The story is told in comics. So really you get the real setting of Montreal because she's actually drawing it. And that was such a different unique experience of reading a book in Montreal because she draws out the whole mountain.
The story is told in comics. So really you get the real setting of Montreal because she's actually drawing it.- Talia Kliot
"It's a memoir. So it's super, super personal. It's very candid. And she writes in the intro that it's a way of her to dispel some of the shame she felt around sex and sexuality growing up.
"And the experiences are so, so relatable in that you see everybody wearing their coats in the winter. And she got swept up in a protest at George-Étienne Monument, which is such a classic Montreal experience."
The Favourite Game by Leonard Cohen
The Favourite Game is the debut novel by legendary Montreal musician and writer Leonard Cohen. It tells the story of Lawrence Breavman. He's the only son of a Jewish family in Montreal. And as he grows up, he grapples with becoming an artist and navigates a lot of candid romantic encounters.
Leonard Cohen is a legendary figure in the world of music and literature. The Montreal artist released 14 albums over the span of nearly 50 years, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
His song Hallelujah has been covered relentlessly by his fellow musicians, from Jeff Buckley and k.d. lang to Justin Timberlake. His books include the novel Beautiful Losers and Selected Poems 1956-1968, for which he won and declined a Governor General's Literary Award. Cohen died on Nov. 7, 2016 at the age of 82.
His final book, the poetry collection The Flame, was released in fall 2018.
Kliot says that she enjoyed the novel's portrayal of Montreal's Jewsih community.
"It definitely is a semi-autobiographical novel and he does kind of say that, but it's also interesting because the way that he writes it is with like a little bit of judgment, a little bit of irony about what he's doing.
I'm also Jewish. So getting to see Jewish Montreal from his perspective was super relatable and cool.- Talia Kliot
"I'm also Jewish. So getting to see Jewish Montreal from his perspective was super relatable and cool. This experience of going to Hebrew school or sitting Shiva, which is like seven days where you commemorate someone who's died and eating a lot of bagels during that time. That's something that I've lived — going to a Bar Mitzvah, questioning God and religion with a level of irony and sarcasm — going to Jewish summer camp in the Laurentian. That's a classic.
"And all of that kind of plays out in this book. So it was interesting to see the Jewish Montreal that I grew up in, but also years earlier — getting that taste of maybe what grandparents would have experienced.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
