The study of Montreal as a specific location in French and English writings has long been subordinated to the demands of linguistically divided and politically contentious narratives about national development. In this cross-linguistic study, Patrick Coleman models an inclusive and post-national literary history of the city itself. Tracing a sequence of moments in the emergence of the Montreal novel from World War II to the turbulent 1960s, Equivocal City offers close readings of fourteen key works of fiction, focusing on the inner dynamic of their construction as well as the unexpected convergences and contrasts in the narrative structures they adopt and the aesthetic perspective they seek to achieve. Critically sophisticated but accessibly written, this book gives a sympathetic account of how writers in both languages struggled to give integrated artistic expression to their experience of a city that was still linguistically compartmentalized and culturally insecure. By analyzing the interplay between story and narrative form, the book explores what French and English novelists could – and could not – imagine about the Montreal they sought to portray. From the responsible realism of Hugh MacLennan and Gabrielle Roy to the fractious phantasmagorias of Jacques Ferron and Leonard Cohen, Equivocal City traces the evolution of the Montreal novel with the aim of retrieving a shareable literary past.

Patrick Coleman is a professor in the Department of French and Francophone Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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"Written in a succinct and excellent prose, this book is an easy read, which uses a range of analytical frameworks to contribute to existing debates. The book's format, style and structure lend themselves to any type of reading: whether for students who wish to glean more information about the importance of the city of Montreal as a locus for relationships and hardships in the post-war period, or as teaching material for a course on Montreal and the history of its literature as an intricate dance involving both English and French literary traditions. Indubitably, Coleman's Equivocal City is a must-read for anyone interested in the complex linguistic and literary history of Montreal and the many ways this informs the 'here and now.'" British Journal of Canadian Studies

"Beautifully written, lucid, uncluttered, and witty, Equivocal City is an excellent study and a genuine pleasure to read. Firmly rooted in the field of Montreal writing with its multiple, overlapping literary spheres, Equivocal City also makes important links to American and European literature. The openness of the book's analytical framework ensured that its readings contribute forcefully to existing debate without being restricted to the terms of that debate." Lianne Moyes, Universite de Montreal Lianne Moyes, Université de Montréal "Beautifully written, lucid, uncluttered, and witty, Equivocal City is an excellent study and a genuine pleasure to read. Firmly rooted in the field of Montreal writing with its multiple, overlapping literary spheres, Equivocal City also makes important links to American and European literature. The openness of the book's analytical framework ensured that its readings contribute forcefully to existing debate without being restricted to the terms of that debate." Lianne Moyes, Université de Montréal

"Patrick Coleman's Equivocal City offers an intriguing analysis of francophone and anglophone authors. [...] Coleman's decision to read the postwar novels within a civic context, and not within the nationalist frameworks of Quebec's Revolution tranquille and Canada's pre-centennial push for bilingualism and biculturalism, is a bold move." Canadian Literature