The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant – Michel Tremblay

The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant — Michel Tremblay
Condition : Good.
Serpent’s Tail, 1981, Medium-format paperback – Fiction – 204pp.

In this first of six novels, Tremblay fictionalized the lives of his beloved characters, dramatized so brilliantly in his plays.

1942, the first day of Spring, and all the women on Fabre Street are pregnant. As three knitting sisters – Rose, Violet, and Mauve – cast their curious eyes over the antics of the swelling women and their loved ones, so Montreal’s most bizarre street comes to life. Its inhabitants include Josaphat-the-Violin who lights up the moon beneath which ladies of the night Betty Bird and Mercedes Benz patrol. There’s courtesan Ti-Lou, owner of 108 pairs of shoes and the hearts of Canada’s most powerful. There’s Pit and Laura who eat every hour of the day. And there’s the fat woman, pregnant with the author…

Tender and memorable, both a love letter to his characters and an elegaic portrayal of the street where Michel Tremblay grew up. The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant is a beautifully crafted novel by one of Canada’s most loved writers.