Book Review: Last Night in Montreal
I fell in love with Emily St. John Mandel when I read "Station Eleven" and even more in love with her writing when I read "The Glass Hotel." I started to look at what else she wrote, desperately looking for ways to fit them into my reading challenge. I settled on "Last Night in Montreal" for my next Mandel endeavour.
Did I enjoy "Last Night in Montreal?" Yes. Did I love it as much as Mandel’s other books I have read? Not so much. While I still found Mandel's writing to be beautiful and the story engaging, I was left feeling wanting by some of the characters and their frustrating decisions.
Let's start with Lilia, who I suppose is the protagonist of the story. Lilia flits from city to city, beginning relationships she knows she'll leave, explaining that she doesn't know how to say. She described this to one character as "I'm not arriving anywhere, I'm only leaving somewhere else." This statement reflected her constant movement as perpetual escaping rather than a desire to be somewhere new.
I had mixed feelings about Lilia. On the one hand, I truly felt for her. As a young girl and teenager constantly on the run, she didn't have the opportunity to learn typical life skills such as building relationships. On the other hand, I couldn't quite understand the new obsessiveness that it seemed everyone developed about her. Each time a relationship with described, or when someone was pulled into Lilia's orbit, they appeared to be consumed by her. I completely understood Eli's initial reaction to Lilia's disappearance and wanting an answer, but his decision-making from there felt immature and frustrating.
I would have loved to read even more about Michaela. I almost feel there is another story to be written just about her. My heart broke for her; she was left to fend for herself, while her Dad obsessed over his Lilia case and her Mom disappeared. Michaela's obsession with Lilia is the only one for which I had more understanding and compassion. Michaela, in some ways, probably stayed developmentally much younger than her chronological years and viewed Lilia as the cause of her life as it stood. Mandel's descriptions of Michaela allowed readers to be pulled into her pain and desperation for connection. Her ending gutted me.
Mandel touches on complex topics and emotions in her writing. She describes some of the less than appealing sides of people, including themes of abuse, abandonment, mental health, addiction and existential uncertainty. She does this in a way that is at times uncomfortable but undoubtedly impressive from a writing standpoint.
Her descriptive language is beautiful and completely engages me throughout the book. Two of my favourite lines that stood out were "Clara poured coffee beans into an ancient cast-iron grinder mounted to the wall, measuring by eye, and then turned the iron handle until the smell of ground coffee filled the room" and "Eli left her there. In the kitchen, he found the pomegranate he'd bought for her and quartered it quickly on a pale blue plate. He thought the contrast between the shades of the pomegranate and the blue might please her. Any one of a number of details can prevent a ship from sinking." I just adored the simple, specific details that tapped into my different senses, drawing me more into the story.
Overall, I still very much enjoyed this book. And knowing that it was Mandel's debut novel is incredibly impressive. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I believe that if I had read "Last Night in Montreal" before her other books, I would have enjoyed it even more without the expectations set by her newer novels.
May 22, 2021