Description
A Walrus Best Book of Fall 2024 • Winner of the 2023 Prix Médicis, Prix Décembre, and Prix Ringuet
Céline Wachowski, internationally renowned architect and accidental digital-culture icon, unveils her plans for the Webuy Complex, her first megaproject in Montreal, her hometown. But instead of the triumph she anticipates in finally bringing her reputation to bear in her own city, the project is excoriated by critics, who accuse her of callously destroying the social fabric of neighborhoods, ushering in a new era of gentrification, and many even deadlier sins. When she is deposed as CEO of her firm, Céline must make sense of the charges against herself and the people in her elite circle. For the first time in danger of losing their footing, what fictions must they tell themselves to justify their privilege and maintain their position in the world that they themselves have built?
Moving fluidly between Céline’s perspective and the perspectives of her critics, and revealing both the ruthlessness of her methods and the brilliance of her aesthetic vision, May Our Joy Endure is a shrewd examination of the microcosm of the ultra-privileged and a dazzling social novel that depicts with razor-sharp acuity the terrible beauty of wealth, influence, and art.
Praise for May Our Joy Endure
“Baroque and philosophical, May Our Joy Endure captures the sensibilities and excesses of the elite. A novel about the housing crisis told from the perspective of those causing it. Lambert captures how the ultra-wealthy justify their actions and sing their own praises while the population is crushed beneath their eloquent tapestry of lies. Lambert’s writing is lyrical and rapturous. In this book, he proves himself a satirical and whimsical Robespierre, hailing from small town Quebec.”
—Heather O’Neill, author of When We Lost Our Heads
“Award-winning Canadian novelist Lambert weaves a hypnotic narrative, smoothly translated from French by Winkler, about greed and inequality, hypocrisy, and, not least, a ‘dangerous notion of purity’ . . . An astute critique of entrenched power.”
—Kirkus Reviews’ (starred review)
“‘Febrile,’ ‘provocative’ and ‘incendiary’ are among the breathless adjectives used to describe the novels of this young writer from Chicoutimi . . . [May Our Joy Endure] (a Prix Goncourt finalist) is a social satire involving an architect who faces extreme unanticipated blowback for her plans for a major Montreal public works project.”
—Emily Donaldson, Globe and Mail
“At a time when many fiction writers feel pressure to write socially useful literature, Lambert’s refusal to deal in solutions feels like an invigorating slap in the face.”
—André Forget, The Walrus
“An icy, cerebral social novel that unfurls during the pandemic as the housing crisis in Montreal tips into catastrophe . . . Equal parts Proust, Woolf, and Gossip Girl, the novel’s intimate perspective roves between Céline and her employees, confidantes, and antagonists like a canny eavesdropper at a party, showcasing Lambert’s gimlet eye for the delusions and designer preferences of the one percent.”
—Michelle Cyca, The Walrus
“Writing in the April issue of the Literary Review of Canada, Amanda Perry called the award-winning original, Que notre joie demeure, ‘stylistically adventurous.’ That also rings true for the seamless translation by Donald Winkler, who renders Lambert’s shifting aesthetic modes and formal experimentation with verve.”
—Emily Mernin, Literary Review of Canada’s Bookworm
“Like Bruegel and Blais, Lambert uses a large cast of characters to depict society’s complexities. His gaze is oceanic, homing in on individuals and zooming out to the systems within which they operate.”
—Marisa Grizenko, Montreal Review of Books
“Like his previous works, including Querelle of Roberval, Kevin Lambert’s new novel has garnered acclaim and won multiple awards in the original French. A philosophical critique of the ultra-privileged, it tells of a famous architect who returns to her hometown and creates a furor with a widely condemned Montreal megaproject.”
—Attila Berki, Quill & Quire
“Abrasive, funny, critical, spirited, and, above all, the show-stopping output of a unparalleled literary talent, it’s a challenging novel whose every page offers something to savour and value.”
—Brett Josef Grubisic, The Miramichi Reader
“[A] translation . . . that masterfully captures the quality of the original text. As a reminder, May Our Joy Endure brilliantly explores and satirizes the world of the ultra-rich, the galloping gentrification of neighborhoods, and the incestuous and parasitic links between political and economic circles.”
—Benoit Migneault, Fugues
“A truly unique and contemporary literary contribution to an important issue.”
—Thalia Stopa, Scout Magazine
“Supremely cunning . . . Between the cracks of its shifting perspective, the book’s darkness seeps through and creates a narrative landslide: the powerful, come what may, will remain in their ivory towers, untouchable. A novel that turns asphyxiation into a reader’s delight, as long as we are willing to take the plunge.”
—Juliette Einhorn, Le Monde (Paris)
“It’s a very Proustian novel set in the age of reality TV. It’s a chilling portrait of our discourse around social justice today, and it points out that, sooner or later, we might find ourselves on the wrong side of it.”
—Élisabeth Philippe, L’obs (Paris)
“Kevin Lambert . . . give[s] us a pointillist painting of the ultra-rich and their world, even if they are rich and powerful, they are nonetheless human beings, with complexities, paradoxes, and contradictions, in which they pickle as if in their own brine.”
—Laurence Houot, France Télévision (Paris)
“[This book reminds us that] literature doesn’t have to look for culprits, but that it should strive to point out the forces that weaken our solidarities.”
—Dominic Tardif, La Presse (Montreal)
“Kevin Lambert’s finely crafted literary edifice is intellectually brilliant, forcing us to think about the privilege of some and the suffering of others.”
—Louise-Maude Rioux Soucy, Le Devoir (Montréal)
“We’re talking about an architect and the metaphor seems obvious: May Our Joy Endure is a multi-story novel, where we move from a balcony overlooking the world down to what’s buried in the basement of our innermost thoughts.”
—Josée Boileau, Journal de Montréal
“Kevin Lambert offers a nuanced, clear-sighted critique of the self-righteous elite in this dense novel that never falls into the trap of condemnation.”
—Anne-Frédérique Hébert-Dolbec, Châtelaine (Montréal)
Praise for Querelle of Roberval
“It has finally arrived: the erotic Québécois novel about labor conflict that we’ve all been waiting for . . . The book is written in an icy style. Try to find a surplus adjective—I dare you. It is not for the squeamish but (or rather, and) is easily one of the best novels I’ve read this year.”
—Molly Young, New York Times
“As this off-putting yet attractively written novel explores both meanings of the word ‘union,’ sex and domination are presented as conjoined compulsions that can lead to brutal forms of ecstasy.”
—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal
“Structured as a reimagining of Greek tragedy, Querelle of Roberval is a book that reads like a swift, vivid dream. The language is direct and cuts straight to the bone, while dealing with passions both personal and professional . . . Brutal and beautiful by turns, this novel will grip readers from the first sentence all the way to its shocking conclusion.”
—David Vogel, Buzzfeed
“Lambert’s fearless novel is a profane, funny, bleak, touching, playful, and outrageous satire of sexual politics, labour, and capitalism . . . The book is brash, beautiful, quasi-mythic, and tragic. Most improbably, for all its daring and provocation, Querelle of Roberval is lyrically, even tenderly written.”
—Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize Judges’ Citation
