Mafia Inc. for #Noirvember

The month is almost over and thus #Noirvember will also soon be over, but I will carry on enjoying crime fiction for the coming months, in film and book form. And I wanted tonight to plug both a film and a movie for every crime fiction and crime history buffs among you. Although I must quickly give a disclaimer: I have not watched the film yet. I have nevertheless heard good things about it. You may remember some years ago that I blogged about Mafia Inc, non fiction book about the Sicilian mafia and organised crime in Montreal. They made last year a fictionalised movie adaptation of the book, with the same title. You can see the trailer below, with subtitles in English, and it seems quite solid. In any case, it looks like a perfect watch for #Noirvember. I know it is a perfect read.

 

Mafia Inc.

J'ai appris l'année dernière que e livre Mafia Inc d'André Cédilot et d'André Noël faisait l'objet d'une adaptation libre en film. Je dis adaptation libre, parce que c'est bien entendu une fiction, pas un documentaire. Ce qui pour moi fait sens: l'histoire du crime organisé fait toujours de l'excellente matière première pour de la fiction policière, que ce soit dans les romans ou au cinéma. Le livre se lisait d'ailleurs comme une saga criminelle québécoise. Mais enfin bref, le film est sorti en salle. Et j'aimerais vraiment, mais vraiment le voir. Dans tous les cas, pour ceux qui peuvent, voici la dernière bande-annonce:

Mafia Inc., le film

J'ai déjà blogué à quelques reprises sur le livre documentaire Mafia Inc d'André Cédilot et d'André Noël. C'est une "lecture criminelle" non fictive qui paradoxalement se lit aussi facilement qu'un roman policier. Ça fait tout de même plus froid dans le dos que la plupart des polars que j'ai lus, parce que c'est une histoire vraie. Or, j'ai récemment appris (en retard sur les nouvelles) que le réalisateur Daniel Grou dit Podz tourne un film, une authentique fiction cette fois-ci, librement inspiré du livre et intitulé comme celui-ci Mafia Inc. Je ne sais pas ce que ça va donner, mais la bande-annonce, que je partage plus bas, semble prometteuse. Peu importe quand je vais pouvoir le regarder, j'ai déjà hâte.

A criminal great unknown line

Sometimes these days, for part of my journey to work, I chat with a former colleague of mine, who now works in a different company and takes the train from the station after mine. She is half-Italian half-British and knows a bit of French. I was reading this book yesterday (the original French version that is), and she asked to have a look at it. She was happy she could easily understand the words. I said: "If you want when I finish it you can borrow it." She answered: "No, that's ok, I can switch on Italian news and that's the same." I thought it was funny, and it deserves to be a great unknown line. I was glad, as I was not being serious offering her to borrow my book. I don't like to lend books to people, they tend never to return them. I guess I do the same. Anyway, I found this line interesting, as it shows how Italian Montreal can be, in its most unpleasant ways.

What to read next

I finished yesterday The Sweet Forever by George Pelecanos. it took me too long to read, embarrassingly so. But I was reading, I am reading, many things at once, so I guess I have an excuse. It was a great book anyway, I should come back to it on this blog. Now I need to choose what to read next. I do not always alternate between genres, although sometimes I try, so it is possible that I read something else than crime fiction. I do try, as much as possible, to alternate between English and French. So until I choose my next book, I will try to finish Mafia Inc, which I have also kept on reading for way too long. What is even more embarrassing is that an updated edition has already been published. There is barely a few pages left of the one I have. Similar read, therefore, but from crime fiction to real crime history, and more precisely Montreal's crime history, which has nothing to envy to the one of Washington D.C. brilliantly depicted in the novels of Pelecanos. Sadly, we do not have a writer like Pelecanos.

The Montreal Connection

This picture was taken in the Old Montreal, back in 2010. I am not sure why I uploaded it here for this post. Maybe I should have taken one of the Court House. it would have been more appropriate. But back in 2010, I obviously didn't know I was about to blog this post. I am reading this book (well, the French original), which I blogged about before. I was recently mentioning Donnie Brasco here, a movie about the infiltration of FBI agent Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco, into the Bonnano Family. I watched it two or three times, enjoyed it quite a lot, but I now want to watch it again. Because I discovered through the book that one of the massacre pictured in the movie was in fact perpetrated by a team of murderers from Montreal, which was only discovered years later. The Montreal mafia has been historically under the authority of the Bonnanos, so both cities are closely connected when it comes to organised crime.

And there is of course The French Connection, which I watched again on the plane going to Montreal. The real, historical French Connection was stopping at Montreal before going to the States. This is all very sinister, yet I cannot help but being fascinated. I feel that we have been robbed of our crime history, and by extension, of our crime fiction.

Crime reads in my city

I am going back to Montreal on holidays soon. After nearly two years of absence, it is about time. I don't know exactly what I will do on my first day in the city to get over the jetlag, many friends want to see me already, but I know I will visit a few of my old places, among them the Bouquinerie du Plateau, where I will very likely buy a second hand Série Noire. On holidays, I read crime fiction a lot, I mean even more than usual. And on top of that I read real crime books, such as Mafia Inc (albeit I read it in French), a brilliant history of the mafia in Montreal. It has been on my bookshelves for ages, I savour it like little by little.I am tempted to bring the book with me, just to read it there.

The more I read crime fiction and real crime history, the more I think that Montreal is such an ideal setting for crime fiction. It has been criminally (ha, ha, ha! the pun!) neglected as a genre. I mean yes, we made one really good TV series (or two), but the literary genre is not really developed. And yet, there is so much to work on, to start with our messy crime history. Kevin Burton Smith (fellow Montrealer) summed it up here. We have everything: a history of violence, a history of corruption, aa history of tensions between various communities, of tensions between the various police forces, the geography, at the gate of America yet with a port that leads to the Old World. It is just such a great setting, with atmosphere and character(s).

Comme un roman policier

Depuis le début de novembre, j'ai repris ma lecture de Mafia Inc d'André Cédilot et d'André Noël. Je lis beaucoup de littérature policière en général, à l'année longue, mais beaucoup plus dans le temps qui mène à Noël, je ne sais pas trop pourquoi (ça ou des livres sur la mythologie, surtout les mythologies celtique et viking). Incidemment, j'ai reçu ce livre en cadeau à Noël.

Je dis littérature policière, pourtant Mafia Inc n'est pas un polar, c'est un livre d'histoire contemporaine, une chronique sur l'histoire de la maffia et plus généralement du crime organisé à Montréal. Cela dit, comme cet autre bouquin, c'est un livre qui se lit comme un roman policier, un roman policier d'une facture épique, avec ses générations de bandits, ses flics corrompus ou incorruptibles, ses guerres, ses batailles, ses éruptions de violence. C'est fascinant et terrifiant à la fois, à cause de la proximité, tant géographique quetemporelle: je suis du Québec, j'ai marché sur les pas du crime à Montréal, j'ai suivi l'actualité criminelle, tant lorsque je vivais au Québec qu'ici. Lire ce livre, c'est une étrange façon de combattre le mal du pays, mais c'est étrangement efficace.

Marcher dans les pas de l'histoire criminelle montréalaise

Mon lectorat sait que je me fascine pour l'histoire criminelle en général et pour l'histoire criminelle montréalaise en particulier. Je suis en train de lire Mafia Inc d'André Cédilot et André Noël. J'en suis encore au début du bouquin, au chapitre deux en fait. Or, dès le début du chapitre je lis ceci avec étonnement:

"Le New Miss Mont-Royal était un restaurant sans prétention. (...) Situé au 707 de l'avenue du Mont-Royal Est, en face de l'église Notre-Dame-du-Très-Saint-Sacrement, il fut remplacé avec le temps par une boutique de livres et de disques d'occasion. À l'époque, il desservait la clientèle d'un quartier populaire qui n'avait pas encore été transformé par l'arrivée massive d'artistes et de jeunes professionnels."

Cette boutique de livres usagés, c'est bien entendu L'Échange, où je me suis arrêté des centaines de milliers de fois sans savoir qu'il avait été le lieu d'un meurtre particulièrement violent lié au crime organisé. J'ai l'impression de lire un roman historique en même temps qu'un roman policier. Mais en plus, je vois la proximité de cette histoire criminelle avec mon passé de Montréalais. L'Échange sera maintenant un lieu de pèlerinage. Je ne crois pas que ce soit immoral: les touristes ici vont bien dans Whitechapel sur les traces de Jack l'Éventreur. La prochaine fois que je vais à L'Échange, j'y achète un roman policier.