Strange Fugitive Read online

  Questions For Discussion And Essays

  1. It is often said that Callaghan, a political liberal with anarchist inclinations, believed in the nobility of individual independence. It has also been said that he consistently refused to pass any kind of moral judgment on his characters. Does Harry Trotter possess a nobility of independence?

  2. “A great writer is always a contemporary.” In what way is Strange Fugitive still a contemporary story?

  3. “Being a homespun existentialist, Callaghan believed in the contemplation of the object, the thing in and of itself." Because he allowed nothing – no ideology or conventional wisdom or prejudice – to intervene between himself and the object, he achieved a style of wonderful clarity and directness, a style that was praised for being “fresh and vivid” in his time. Is this still an accurate description of his style? Cite examples of his style from Strange Fugitive to argue your case.

  4. It has been said that all his characters are “insulted and injured” and, therefore, “shame and humiliation” are the driving concerns of his stories. Do you find this to be true?

  5. Some readers feel that, because Harry Trotter has no articulated inner moral life, that there is nothing heroic about him, that he is something of an emotional robot. Yet William Carlos Williams, the great American poet, said that the truth in principle that governs the book is the tragic principle that governs classic drama, a principle that is usually centred in a figure who is heroic because he has a moment of catharsis, a moment of blinding moral awareness in which all is illuminated and given meaning. Can you resolve these conflicting arguments in the figure of Harry Trotter?

  6. Considering all the gangster films and gangster stories available – Cronenberg’s History of Violence, for example, or The Godfather in all its parts – and bearing in mind that “honour” in such stories usually has nothing at all to do with what we would call “morality” – do the gangster figures of our time represent any kind of enlargement, in terms of character, on Harry Trotter?

  7. Discuss the relationship between sexuality and violence as it plays out in Strange Fugitive.

  8. Most would agree that at the heart of a Morley Callaghan story is the figure of a man or woman who is going through the process of a moral disintegration; is it possible to talk about Harry Trotter in these terms, and if so, do so.

  Related Reading

  Aaron, Daniel. Morley Callaghan and the Great Depression. The Callaghan Symposium. University of Ottawa Press, 1981.

  Callaghan, Barry. Barrelhouse Kings. Toronto: McArthur & Company, 1998.

  Callaghan, Morley. A Literary Life. Reflection and Reminiscences 1928-1990. Holstein: Exile Editions, 2008.

  Cameron, Barry. “Rhetorical Tradition and the Ambiguity of Callaghan’s Narrative Rhetoric.” The Callaghan Symposium. University of Ottawa Press, 1981.

  Clark, O.S. Of Toronto the Good: A Social Study. 1898. Toronto: Coles Canadiana Collection, 1970.

  Conron, Brandon. Morley Callaghan: Critical Views on Canadian Writers, No. 10. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1975.

  Edwards, Justin D. “Strange Fugitive, Strange City: Reading Urban Space in Morley Callaghan’s Toronto.” Studies in Canadian Literature,Volume 23.1. 1998.

  Ellenwood, Ray. “Morley Callaghan, Jacques Ferron, and the Dialectic of Good and Evil.” The Callaghan Symposium. University of Ottawa Press, 1981.

  Marcus, Steven. “Reading the Illegible: Some Modern Representations of Urban Experience.” Visions of the Modern City: Essays in History, Art, and Literature. Ed. William Sharpe and Leonard Wallock. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1987. 232-56.

  Mathews, Robin. “Morley Callaghan and the New Colonialism: The Supreme Individual in Traditionless Society.” Studies in Canadian Literature 3.1 (1978): 78-92.

  McDonald, Larry. “The Civilized Ego and Its Discontents: A New Approach to Callaghan.” The Callaghan Symposium. University of Ottawa Press, 1981.

  McPherson, Hugo. “The Two Worlds of Morley Callaghan: Man’s Earthly Quest.” Queens Quarterly, LXIV, 3 (Autumn 1957). 350-365.

  Snider, Norman. “Why Morley Callaghan Still Matters,” Globe and Mail, 25 October, 2008.

  Walsh, William. A Manifold Voice: Studies in Commonwealth Literature. London: Chatto & Windus, 1971.

  White, Randall. Too Good to Be True: Toronto in the 1920s. Toronto: Dundurn, 1993.

  Wilson, Edmund. O Canada: An American’s Notes on Canadian Culture. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, l964.

  Woodcock, George. “Callaghan’s Toronto: The Persona of a City.” Journal of Canadian Studies 7-2 (1972) 21-24.

  Zucchi, John E. Italians in Toronto: Development of a National Identity, 1875-1935. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 1988.

  Of Interest on the Web

  www.MorleyCallaghan.ca

  – The official site of the Morley Callaghan Estate

  www2.athabascau.ca/cll/writers/english/writers/mcallaghan.php

  – Athabasca University site

  www.editoreric.com/greatlit/authors/Callaghan.html

  – The Greatest Authors of All Time site

  www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/callaghan.htm

  – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) site

  THE EXILE CLASSICS SERIES ~ 1 TO 27

  THAT SUMMER IN PARIS (No. 1) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN

  Memoir & Essays 5.5x8.5 280 pages 978-1-55096-361-8 (tpb)

  It was the fabulous summer of 1929 when the literary capital of North America had moved to the Left Bank of Paris. Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Ford Madox Ford, Robert McAlmon and Morley Callaghan... amid these tangled relationships, friendships were forged, and lost... A tragic and sad and unforgettable story told in Callaghan’s lucid, compassionate prose. Also included in this new edition are selections from Callaghan’s comments on Hemingway, Joyce and Fitzgerald, beginning in that time early in his life, and ending with his reflection on returning to Paris at the end of his life.

  NIGHTS IN THE UNDERGROUND (No. 2) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS

  Novel 6x9 190 pages 978-1-55096-015-0 (tpb)

  With this novel, Marie-Claire Blais came to the forefront of feminism in Canada. This is a classic of lesbian literature that weaves a profound matrix of human isolation, with transcendence found in the healing power of love.

  DEAF TO THE CITY (No. 3) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS

  Novel 6x9 218 pages 978-1-55096-013-6 (tpb)

  City life, where innocence, death, sexuality, and despair fight for survival. It is a book of passion and anguish, characteristic of our times, written in a prose of controlled self-assurance. A true urban classic.

  THE GERMAN PRISONER (No. 4) ~ JAMES HANLEY

  Novella 6x9 64 pages 978-1-55096-075-4 (tpb)

  In the weariness and exhaustion of WWI trench warfare, men are driven to extremes of behaviour.

  THERE ARE NO ELDERS (No. 5) ~ AUSTIN CLARKE

  Stories 6x9 159 pages 978-1-55096-092-1 (tpb)

  Austin Clarke is one of the significant writers of our times. These are compelling stories of life as it is lived among the displaced in big cities, marked by a singular richness of language true to the streets.

  100 LOVE SONNETS (No. 6) ~ PABLO NERUDA

  Poetry 5.5x8.5 232 pages 978-1-55096-108-9 (tpb)

  As Gabriel García Márquez stated: “Pablo Neruda is the greatest poet of the twentieth century – in any language.” And, this is the finest translation available, anywhere!

  THE SELECTED GWENDOLYN MACEWEN (No. 7)

  GWENDOLYN MACEWEN

  Poetry/Fiction/Drama/Art/Archival 6x9 352 pages 978-1-55096-111-9 (tpb)

  “This book represents a signal event in Canadian culture.” — Globe and Mail The only edition to chronologically follow the astonishing trajectory of MacEwen’s career as a poet, storyteller, translator and dramatist, in a substan-tial selection from each genre.

  THE WOLF (No. 8) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS

  Novel 6x9 158 pages 978-1-55096-105-8 (tpb)

  A human wolf moves outside the bounds o
f love and conventional morality as he stalks willing prey in this spellbinding masterpiece and classic of gay literature.

  A SEASON IN THE LIFE OF EMMANUEL (No. 9) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS

  Novel 6x9 175 pages 978-1-55096-118-8 (tpb)

  Widely considered by critics and readers alike to be her masterpiece, this is truly a work of genius comparable to Faulkner, Kafka, or Dostoyevsky. Includes 16 ink drawings by Mary Meigs.

  IN THIS CITY (No. 10) ~ AUSTIN CLARKE

  Stories 6x9 221 pages 978-1-55096-106-5 (tpb)

  Clarke has caught the sorrowful and sometimes sweet longing for a home in the heart that torments the dislocated in any city. Eight masterful stories showcase the elegance of Clarke’s prose and the innate sympathy of his eye.

  THE NEW YORKER STORIES (No. 11) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN

  Stories 6x9 158 pages 978-1-55096-110-2 (tpb)

  Callaghan’s great achievement as a young writer is marked by his breaking out with stories such as these in this collection... “If there is a better storyteller in the world, we don’t know where he is.” — New York Times

  REFUS GLOBAL (No. 12) ~ THE MONTRÉAL AUTOMATISTS

  Manifesto 6x9 142 pages 978-1-55096-107-2 (tpb)

  The single most important social document in Quebec history, and the most important aesthetic statement a group of Canadian artists has ever made. This is basic reading for anyone interested in Canadian history or the arts in Canada.

  TROJAN WOMEN (No. 13) ~ GWENDOLYN MACEWEN

  Drama 6x9 142 pages 978-1-55096-123-2 (tpb)

  A trio of timeless works featuring the great ancient theatre piece by Euripedes in a new version by MacEwen, and the translations of two long poems by the contemporary Greek poet Yannis Ritsos.

  ANNA’S WORLD (No. 14) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS

  Novel 5.5x8.5 166 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-130-0

  An exploration of contemporary life, and the penetrating energy of youth, as Blais looks at teenagers by creating Anna, an introspective, alienated teenager without hope. Anna has experienced what life today has to offer and rejected its premise. There is really no point in going on. We are all going to die, if we are not already dead, is Anna’s philosophy.

  THE MANUSCRIPTS OF PAULINE ARCHANGE (No. 15) ~ MARIE-CLAIRE BLAIS

  Novel 5.5x8.5 324 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-131-7

  For the first time, the three novelettes that constitute the complete text are brought together: the story of Pauline and her world, a world in which people turn to violence or sink into quiet despair, a world as damned as that of Baudelaire or Jean Genet.

  A DREAM LIKE MINE (No. 16) ~ M.T. KELLY

  Novel 5.5x8.5 174 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-132-4

  A Dream Like Mine is a journey into the contemporary issue of radical and violent solutions to stop the destruction of the environment. It is also a journey into the unconscious, and into the nightmare of history, beauty and terror that are the awesome landscape of the Native American spirit world.

  THE LOVED AND THE LOST (No. 17) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN

  Novel 5.5x8.5 302 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-151-5 (tpb)

  With the story set in Montreal, young Peggy Sanderson has become socially unacceptable because of her association with black musicians in nightclubs. The black men think she must be involved sexually, the black women fear or loathe her, yet her direct, almost spiritual manner is at variance with her reputation.

  NOT FOR EVERY EYE (No. 18) ~ GÉRARD BESSETTE

  Novel 5.5x8.5 126 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-149-2 (tpb)

  A novel of great tact and sly humour that deals with ennui in Quebec and the intellectual alienation of a disenchanted hero, and one of the absolute classics of modern revolutionary and comic Quebec literature. Chosen by the Grand Jury des Lettres of Montreal as one of the ten best novels of post-war contemporary Quebec.

  STRANGE FUGITIVE (No. 19) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN

  Novel 5.5x8.5 242 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-155-3 (tpb)

  Callaghan’s first novel – originally published in New York in 1928 – announced the coming of the urban novel in Canada, and we can now see it as a proto-type for the “gangster” novel in America. The story is set in Toronto in the era of the speakeasy and underworld vendettas.

  IT’S NEVER OVER (No. 20) ~ MORLEY CALLAGHAN

  Novel 5.5x8.5 190 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-157-7 (tpb)

  1930 was an electrifying time for writing. Callaghan’s second novel, completed while he was living in Paris – imbibing and boxing with Joyce and Hemingway (see his memoir, Classics No. 1, That Summer in Paris) – has violence at its core; but first and foremost it is a story of love, a love haunted by a hanging. Dostoyevskian in its depiction of the morbid progress of possession moving like a virus, the novel is sustained insight of a very high order.

  AFTER EXILE (No. 21) ~ RAYMOND KNISTER

  Poetry 5.5x8.5 240 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-159-1 (tpb)

  This book collects for the first time Knister’s poetry. The title After Exile is plucked from Knister’s long poem written after he returned from Chicago and decided to become the unthinkable: a modernist Canadian writer. Knister, writing in the 20s and 30s, could barely get his poems published in Canada, but magazines like This Quarter (Paris), Poetry (Chicago) Voices (Boston), and The Dial (New York City), eagerly printed what he sent, and always asked for more and all of it is in this book.

  THE COMPLETE STORIES OF MORLEY CALLAGHAN (No. 22-25)

  Four Volumes ~ Stories 5.5 x 8.5 (tpb) (tpb)

  v1 ISBN: 978-1-55096-304-5 352 Pages

  v2 ISBN: 978-1-55096-305-2 344 Pages

  v3 ISBN: 978-1-55096-306-9 360 Pages

  v4 ISBN: 978-1-55096-307-6 360 Pages

  The complete short fiction of Morley Callaghan is brought together as he comes into full recognition as one of the singular storytellers of our time. “Attractively produced in four volumes, each introduced by [Alistair Macleod, André Alexis, Anne Michaels and Margaret Atwood], and each containing ‘Editor’s Endnotes.’ The project is nothing if not ambitious... [and provides for] the definitive edition.” —Books in Canada

  So that the reader may appreciate this writer’s development and the shape of his career – and for those with a scholarly approach to the reading of these collections – each book contains an on-end section providing the year of publication for each story, a Q&A section related to each volume’s stories, and comprehensive editorial notes. Also included are historical photographs, manuscript pages, and more.

  CONTRASTS: IN THE WARD ~ A BOOK OF POETRY AND PAINTINGS (No. 26) ~ LAWREN HARRIS

  Poetry/16 Colour Paintings 7x7 168 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-308-3 (special edition pb)

  Group of Seven painter Lawren Harris’ poetry and paintings take the reader on a unique historical journey that offers a glimpse of our country’s past as it was during early urbanization. “This small album of poetry, paintings, and biographical walking tour ought to be on every ‘Welcome to Toronto’ (and ‘Canada’) book list. Gregory Betts’s smart, illustrative writing, which convinces by style as well as content, and Exile Editions’ winning presentation, combine to make Lawren Harris: In the Ward a fresh look at the early work of one of Canada’s most iconic modernists.” — Open Book Toronto

  WE WASN’T PALS ~ CANADIAN POETRY AND PROSE OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR (No. 27) ~ ED. BRUCE MEYER AND BARRY CALLAGHAN

  Poetry/Prose 5.5x8.5 320 pages ISBN: 978-1-55096-315-1 (tpb)

  2014 marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the war...

  For decades the literature of Canada’s experience in World War One lay ignored and was dismissed by readers, critics, and literary historians. Here, at last, is the imaginative testimony of those who served in the trenches and hospitals of the Great War. These pages chronicle the struggle to put into words the horrors, the insights, and the tribulations that ultimately shaped a nation’s character. In the voices of Frank Prewett, W. Redvers Dent, nurse Bertha Carveth, fighter pilot Hartley Munro Thomas, and other members of a generation that gave their lives and their souls to t
he war, this is the first anthology since 1918 of poetry, fiction, essays, songs, and illustrations that adds an important new chapter to Canada’s literature. Preface and Introduction by Bruce Meyer; Foreword by Barry Callaghan; Afterword by Margaret Atwood.

  The Exile Classics, and Exile Related Reading titles, are available for purchase at: www.ExileEditions.com

  Table of Contents

  COVER

  Contents

  Introduction

  PART ONE 1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  PART TWO 1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  PART THREE 1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  PART FOUR 1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  Endnote

  Questions For Discussion And Essays

  Related Reading

  Of Interest on the Web

  Guide

  Cover

  Contents