> ALEXANDRE CHENEVERT, par Gabrielle Roy. — Ce rare livre "existentialiste" québécois brosse le portrait troublant d'un homme ordinaire qui prend sur son dos tout les tourments de l'humanité.
-- Le premier chapitre est en soi un chef d'oeuvre: au prise avec une crise d'insomnie, Alexandre Chenevert regarde le monde qui l'entoure, la politique, la guerre, l'environnement, les famines (le livre date de 1954) et on comprend, aujourd'hui, que si l'actualité change dans les détails, elle ne change pas dans le fond. Le monde tourne toujours aussi mal… Une solution ? Malheureusement, ce livre est probablement le plus sombre de Gabrielle Roy, mais l'humanisme radieux de ses autres romans et nouvelles propose peut-être une solution aux problèmes contemporain… L'ouverture à l'autre et le rapprochement des êtres humains est certainement l'une des solutions pour rendre plus vivable cette planète malade…
--Éric Champagne (ICI.Radio-Canada.ca)

This is a glimpse into mid-century working class Montreal, before universal public health care, during a time when workers had few rights, and the social services network was not yet fully developed. Against this perilous background, the prudent man will carefully and meticulously count his pennies, wasting none, begrudging those that must be parted with.
The Church, which in Quebec was almost always the Roman Catholic Church, exerted enormous influence and control, especially over the poor and working class. There was an ever-present need to conform to society's expectations of a proper marriage, to be an obedient and slavish worker, and to lead a righteous and proper life.
This is against human nature. So much of human nature must be stifled and repressed. But this happens with widely varying degrees of success. Monsieur Chenevert, a lowly bank teller, just wanted to do right, to be a righteous person, but he is a pinched, crabbed, irritable little man. Life didn't balance out on the books the way he thought it should. He is exasperating to everyone around him, and even to himself. And yet as Gabrielle Roy fleshes out his complexities, the reader becomes sympathetic to this man who has struggled so long with the only chance at life he gets.
One of the favourite characters of CanLit, the Great Canadian Outdoors, makes an appearance to justify its role as a restorative.
Roy's writing provides graceful and profound insights into the human condition, frequently leavened with flashes of humour.
Poor Monsieur Chenevert.
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"Alexandre Chenevert is a Montreal cashier, trapped by his narrow environment and acutely aware of his loneliness. Gabrielle Roy has created a memorable and poignant picture of an ordinary man and his attempts to transcend his circumstances and his fate." - jacket notes from the McClelland and Stewart edition. Translated by Harry Binsse, with an introduction by W.C. Lougheed. A classic French-Canadian novel. ( )