Insofar as we can speak of a golden age of English-language Montreal literature, the period from the 1950s through to the early 1970s stands out as a natural choice.
Mordecai Richler, Mavis Gallant, Hugh McLennan, and Leonard Cohen all enjoyed success nationally and internationally. Richler enjoyed stirring the pot with blistering anti-nationalist op-eds in the New York Times, his jowly yet doe-eyed mug frequently appearing on the evening news. MacLennan won five Governor General's awards and summed up Canada's colonial reality in one pithy sentence: the Two Solitudes. Gallant wrote about the Montreal of her youth for the New Yorker and had enough of an impact on the collective cultural psyche to inspire the Lucinda Krementz character in Wes Anderson's "The French Dispatch", played by Frances McDormand.
For readers who care about Montreal
Create a free account to read this story and access 3 articles per month, plus our weekly Bulletin.
Comments
Welcome to The Main's comments section!
Share your thoughts and join the conversation. Please be respectful and constructive.
No comments yet. Be the first!