Reviewed by Ruth Latta
Griffintown Sisters
by J. Emile Turcotte
Ardith Publishing
August 2024, Paperback, 372 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1554835614
J. Emile Turcotte’s novel, Griffintown Sisters, is a gritty noir novel set in Montreal. The story begins in 1914, when a police officer goes to DeMontigny Street to settle a dispute between neighbours. Mrs. Dougherty accuses Mrs. Eugénie Desjardins of hitting her, while Eugénie accuses and the Mrs. Dougherty of harassing her by pounding on the door of her business, the De Montigny Boarding House and shouting accusations. The young women who live in the house come out to defend Eugénie, while her ten year old nephew, Arthur, stays indoors, frightened by the altercation. Eventually things calm down.
The novel then shifts back to 1894, centring upon ten year old Saraphine Desjardins and her sister, thirteen year old Eugénie. The cover shows two pretty but solemn young girls, all dressed up to have their picture taken. Their serious faces and their grimy kid boots are the only hints of trouble ahead.
Things go wrong for the Desjardins sisters when their mother dies and their father takes off for the West, In the late 19th century, with no social safety net, how will they survive? At first, the answer seems to be their aunt Blanche, who takes them into the home she shares with her husband, Marc, a butcher shop employee, and their son, Ephrem, a pleasant boy with a stuttering problem. They all get along until Fate deals another blow; Marc drops dead at work. Fortunately, he has already persuaded the owner, Urbin Charpentier to hire Eugénie as a shop assistant, and her wages just barely keep the household afloat.
Also employed at the shop are an Irish Canadian youth, Sean, and Urbin’s son, Orance. Monsieur Charpentier is haunted by a family tragedy. Several years earlier, an ice fishing trip ended in the deaths of his two elder sons and his father, who perished while searching for Orance. Still grieving, Urbin secretly blames Orance for causing the accident. Orance is aware of his dad’s feelings and begins drinking at an early age.
Meanwhile, Eugénie is well-liked at the Boucherie Salaison Charpentier. One customer, well-dressed, cultured Mme Déry, admires the young woman’s friendliness and efficiency. For a while, it looks as if Eugénie will have a stable future at the store.
The butcher shop is key to the novel’s atmosphere. Bad odours, blood and animal corpses make the setting ring true, but also show that life is nasty, brutal and short. The meat metaphor continues throughout the novel, and also foreshadowing a time when two key characters get involved in a different kind of meat trade The grim feeling is also furthered by one character’s violence and anger.
Mr. Turcotte has taken to heart the principle of “showing,” not “telling,” knowing that dramatization (writing in scenes) draws readers in, while narration (“telling”) distances them. Indeed, Griffintown Sisters would lend itself to film adaptation. The writer may have learned too well the principle of scenes, not summaries. The first few scenes of drunken violence are essential in establishing the villain’s abusive nature, and similar subsequent scenes are needed to show his behaviour escalating, but eventually the violent episodes get repetitive and feel gratuitous. Delay is a useful narrative technique, but too much waiting for a catastrophic climax may try some readers’ patience.
On the plus side, the well-chosen and unobtrusively presented period details make readers feel that they are experiencing life was in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. The author’s sociology background must have been useful in evoking an era which not a Belle Epoque for most people. In the final chapters, he draws together the various plot threads. Readers may be disappointed in the less-than-ideal outcome, but will not be surprised.
Griffintown Sisters is vividly written, with multi-faceted characters including strong, resourceful women. The sisters’ love for each other and their struggle for survival come across clearly. This book will provoke thought about whether or not things have changed much for people at the bottom of society’s ladder.
About the reviewer: Ruth Latta, (ruthannelatta.blogspot.com) author of A Striking Woman and other Canadian historical fiction, is now researching a woman painter from the 1930s-‘40’s.