The Carpenter from Montreal

by George Fetherling

Worlds collide when a naïve young heiress takes a tumble for a bootlegger with a murderous temper and his business partner falls in love with Montreal, the way Americans are prone to do. One world war has ended and a second is in the wings. In the space between, the neon-powered city on the St. Lawrence is notorious for its lavish nightlife, obsessive gambling and evident corruption. Controlling the action from behind the scenes is a large and mysterious figure called the Carpenter. He is the city's fixer, mediator and manipulator. He is the boss of the night, le caïd de la nuit. In this cinematic and genre-bending novel, George Fetherling both honours the roots of serious noir fiction while also pushing its boundaries.

275 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2017

About the author

Douglas George Fetherling (born January 1, 1949) is a Canadian writer, poet, novelist, biographer, artist, and cultural commentator. One of the most prolific figures in Canadian letters, he has written or edited more than fifty books.
He previously published under the name Douglas Fetherling until 1999, and thereafter under the name George Fetherling, switching to his middle name to honor his father George, after recovering from life-saving surgery for the same medical condition that had killed his father.
One of his most popular works is Travels by Night: A Memoir, which recreates leading personalities and events in the fabled Canadian cultural renaissance of 1965–75.
Fetherling is also a visual artist. He lives in Vancouver.

Reviews

[Bonnie Lendrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew that the original 4G network was a nexus of gamblers, girls, guns and gangsters, and that the Canadian hotspot was Montreal? Until I began George Fetherling’s latest novel, The Carpenter From Montreal, I did not know that Montreal was a Babylon of the North during the 1920’s and 1930’s .
Fetherling spins his taut tale of two lads from immigrant families who Americanize their Lebanese names to Jim Joseph and Pete Sells. Through a combination of wits and good fortune, the two men become successful bootleggers and purveyors of games of chance in a “town” somewhere south of Canada. (My bet is on Brooklyn.) It’s Jim who encounters the French carpenter on one of his early bootlegging runs. A mentoring relationship of sorts begins. Unlike the expectations one would have of someone called “The Carpenter,” this character never touches tools traditionally associated with the craft. He’s more of a fixer—behind the scenes. From him, Jim learns about moving goods across borders and keeping the wheels of justice greased. And he acquires the carpenter’s habits of elegant attire, lavish surroundings and bodyguards.
The story-telling in The Carpenter From Montreal is unconventional but compelling. Three characters—a ghost, a newspaperman, and a lawyer—recount the rise and fall of Jim and Pete against a rich backdrop of characters, conversations, and street-life. There were times when I marveled at how Fetherling, who was born after this 4G epoch, had captured in almost cinematographic detail the corruption and swagger of the time. I was fully immersed in the period.
The Carpenter From Montreal is an engaging and entertaining examination of a period and a lifestyle from an author who is a master craftsman. (See a recent article in The Globe and Mail for an update on Montreal’s red-light district: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/... ).

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good noir novel, partly set in the United States and partly, of course, in Montreal. The novel is told from the point of view of three narrators with different vantage points on the development of a criminal underworld connecting Canada with the U.S., beginning with the bootlegging market created by American prohibition, and extending across the usual profiteer's heyday known as war. The role of the numbers racket and its undeniable resemblance to the various lotteries now the stock in trade of state and provincial governments in both nations also receive pride of place in this novel, which focuses on two men of Lebanese extraction, related by marriage, who attempt to become kingpins, one with the assistance of a mysterious Quebecois who is known as "The Carpenter".