The Accidental Education of Jerome Lupien

Montreal student Jerome Lupien — libidinous, unscrupulous, and fresh out of university — is ambitious and at loose ends. Whether on a hunting trip into Québec’s northern woods, on an escape planned in good faith to Cuba, or seeking to make his way in Montreal, Jerome cannot help but be embroiled in misadventures and underworld escapades. He is conned by the devious — a hunting guide, a low-life car salesman, and, ultimately, a well-to-do political lobbyist profiting by the city’s infamously corrupt partnership of politicians wielding remunerative contracts and the construction firms in cahoots. The unwitting (though frequently culpable) young man is enrolled, whether he knows it or not, in an unconventional and criminal school. And the education is singular, not only for Jerome, but also the reader. The young man’s heady journey provides — as only Yves Beauchemin can do — an extraordinary, full, and trenchant portrait of Québec and the city of Montreal in all its topographical and class variety. Here is a mordant piece of social satire that is a marvelous entertainment and wonderfully traditional narrative too.