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In The Grey Wolf, did you pick up on any historical or geographical details of interest? Tell us about it and what you appreciated learning about in The Grey Wolf.
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There were a few historical details that I want to learn more about after finishing the Grey Wolf.
One was when the October Crisis in 1970 was brought up. When the FLQ kidnapped and killed a politician and set off bombs in Montreal that ushered in Trudeau using the War Measures Act. I’d like to read up more about the terrorist group, why they acted, and what the outcome was when the War Measures Act was implemented. There is such growing unrest happening across the world and in Western democracies it doesn’t seem far-fetched that we’ll have repeats of such incidents.
I also want to find out more about Grande Chartreuse and the Carthusian order. Never heard of them before. It’s just an unusual mix to have a group of monks and a world famous liqueur go hand in hand.
As for geography, there were a few geographical details that Louise describes throughout the book but I was most interested in some of the remote areas and towns she mentioned, especially Blanc-Sablon.
I already knew that Quebec has a lot of water and supplies quite a bit of hydroelectricity to not only Quebec but the United States. But it wasn’t on my mind that they would be targeted by terrorists. But it makes sense not only from drinking water but also because of the electrical power supply. A truly chilling revelation when you start thinking about it.
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Tara has mentioned two of the key insights for me. The shared water and hydroelectricity was news to me, even though Niagara Falls has been a clear indication all along. I was also really impressed with the extent of Canada’s natural water resources, and certainly agreed with the comment that in a climate-warming environment, such resources will replace others in global import.
I was very interested in her reference to Canada’s October 1970 crisis and the War Measures Act. It is a tension all democracies face in a global terrorism environment and we can only hope that with each crisis we make the right choices and learn from the poor ones. I would suggest that in the US we are now facing a crisis over leadership and the fate of our own democracy, and can only hope our better angels prevail.
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The historical moments that I explored more are the July 7 suicide terrorist bombings in London’s public transit system with over 52 deaths and over 700 injuries. Once, I began reading I recognized that event from the news. The other mentioned by Tara and Carol is the October Crisis in 1970 in Canada, a complex political situation with resulting chaos and death. I won’t attempt to describe it in more detail because I’m not sure that I totally understand it. I think both events are mentioned to lead more credulity to the water poisoning. I believe that both reinforce the real possibility of fallout and unbridled power that can result from poisoning the water or, at least, attempting to do so.
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As is often the case, Louise’s stories weave in specific historic events and underlying political conflicts and tensions. I found the issue of Canada’s natural resources, specifically water, among the most interesting and compelling. It reminded me of one of the Cork O’Connor series in which part of the plot involves a scheme to divert water from Ontario to the U.S. The historic antecedent was called the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA). First proposed in the 1950s, it would have channeled water from Canada to the U.S. and destroyed Canadian cities in the process. It was not abandoned on principle but because the price tag became too high even for its greedy adherents. Water scarcity is and will continue to be a global challenge made worse by the effects of climate change.
There is no way to compete with the Canadian locations in this story for natural beauty and awe. The remoteness of several really added to the emotional impact of the story. But, I also enjoyed revisiting with Jean-Guy the city of Washington, D.C. I have never visited the Hay-Adams and doubt I could ever afford to stay there although I would gladly raise a glass in Off the Record. But I have visited the city many times. It is more than a seat of power, although it is that. It is lovely, especially around the National Mall. It’s buildings acknowledge both the individuals and ideals that the U.S. espouses and sometimes lives up to. I last visited in 2019 and do not see a return in my future travels but there is much to see and learn. I am going to hope and trust that will not fundamentally change.
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Jane, I appreciate your mention of NAWAPA. The reason that the idea failed is especially chilling to me. We see repeatedly how the love for money and more power seems to be greater than the power of love for each other and our planet for those in who hold positions with power.
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Jane, I’ve started working my way through the Cork O’Connor series, and can’t wait to get to the book you mentioned. I won’t ask which one it is, so that I can be surprised when I get to it!
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I’m going to start reading that series! Have been meaning to since the Iron Lake discussion.
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I need to reread the rest of the series.
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I really enjoyed visiting Grande Chartreuse with Isabelle. At first I thought it was a made-up place but learned it is actually a real monastery. It’s fascinating how these offshoots of religious orders who were persecuted went into seclusion but they also developed some kind of “trade” or product by which they could earn money to live off, in this case the chartreuse liqueur. Wikipedia says that a man in Henry IV’s court presented the Carthusian monks with the recipe in 1605. The monks produced it and modified the recipe in 1737 and it became popular. But when the monks were expelled from France in 1793 the liqueur stopped being made. Yet the manuscript with the recipe was hidden and moved from place to place before being returned to the monks nearly a hundred years later in 1816. The monks were expelled again from France in 1903 and again took their secret recipe. It’s truly amazing that the liqueur is even still made given how many times the monks were forced to move away and the recipe was secretly shuffled around. Apparently, today, the liqueur is prepared by two months who are the only ones who know the secret recipe, just as LP describes in the book!
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Maureen, I found the Carthusian history fascinating, too, and had to look that up! That led me to wonder about other liqueurs produced by clerics, and I found several French orders producing them. The Cistercians are particularly active with this business (they apparently produce things such as Mandarin, Senacole, Eau de Vie [a brandy], and a form of Mead); Benedictine liqueur comes from the Benedictines (no surprise!) in Normandy, and the Carthusians not only produce the Green Chartreuse, but also Yellow Chartreuse and something called Gentian, which is apparently good over ice cream! And Trappist monks have a whole history and set of rules involving their production of Trappist beers. There is also a famous wine manufactured by the Montserrat Monastery monks in Spain; Buckfast Abbey in England makes a strange caffeinated wine called Buckfast Tonic Wine (that some have linked to increased crime in areas that consume it!), and I also stumbled across the information that the recipe for Aqua Vitae (Scotch whisky) originated with the monks of Lindores Abbey in Scotland. This is one of the things I love about LP’s books — it seems they always lead me down various rabbit holes of knowledge, and make me curious to learn more.
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It’s very easy to fall down that rabbit hole with LP isn’t it? I was struck how chartreuse is made from an ingredient list of 130 plants! 130! It hardly seems like a sustainable business enterprise so I can see why it’s only produced by monks. I think you need the devotion as an ingredient to make it! I didn’t know about the yellow chartreuse or gentian or any of the other drinks (or monks) you mention. Fascinating. I once visited Burgundy and that area has many historical monasteries that made wine. Some still do produce wines and have been making them for centuries I believe. But the wines are often made in such small quantities that they never leaves France or are only sold to collectors. I know the nuns of New Skete make a cheesecake at their New York monastery which is supposed to be delicious and is on my bucket list to try one day. 😀
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Maureen, a good cheesecake can be a religious experience for me! I might just put that on my list as well!
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I really enjoyed all your rabbit holes!
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Absolutely a source of rabbit holes but always interesting ones and the research adds to my enjoyment of the story and what I learn. Sort of an LP dividend!
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Absolutely agree with Nancy and Jane! Fascinating and that’s a clever way to think of all the knowledge and research shared here Jane. An LP dividend is brilliant!
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As many of you have mentioned, I found the reference to the October Crisis in 1970 to be of great interest, and I want to know more, and plan to check that out in greater detail. I know that we sometimes think “oh, that will never happen here,” and yet, history shows time and time again that sometimes the unthinkable really does happen. And history often repeats itself, if we fail to learn lessons from the past. It frightens me how so many people just don’t consider history important; they are content to live in the present, and not give much consideration to either the past or the future.
I’ve been interested in the water situation in Canada ever since Bury Your Dead piqued my curiosity regarding the hydroelectric dams and their importance, and I was intrigued that water is again a source of concern in this book. Makes me think a LOT about natural resources, and their strategic significance around the world. And most wars are fought over resources, when it comes right down to it. They are often camouflaged by jingoistic rhetoric and propaganda intended to inflame the citizens and provoke them to be herded into action, but the bottom line is usually that those in power will profit and gain power by the outcome. I see hints of this in LP’s books; those black wolves out there, plotting and planning. Gives me a lot of things to think about.
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I think LP made some very interesting observations about climate change and the geo-political power shifts going on. Talk about timely. In Chapter 22 she writes, “Canada might not be the most powerful nation on earth, but power was shifting from weapons to resources. And Canada was resource-rich. Which was tipping the balance of power. Where once the population had been dismissed as hewers of wood and drawers of water, servile and menial, now, in this climate of change, that description turned out to be a very good thing. Canada had plenty of wood to hew and fresh water to draw. To drink. They just had to do a much better job of protecting it.”
This is exactly the reason the incoming US government is suddenly talking about Greenland and Canada. Not only do the two countries secure the Northwest Passage through the Arctic (which world powers will fight over as the arctic melts) but also both countries are very rich in the minerals and precious metals used in microprocessors and atomic energy. Oil is no longer the world’s gold. Lithium, cobalt, iron, uranium these are the natural resources needed by the levers of power.
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The events I cited about a historical effort to divert water from Canada to the U.S. and the issue of global water scarcity came with this quote, “Water is now being called the next gold.”
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I am reading your wonderful comments and realizing that my anxiety about the current state of US-Canadian relations is shared by many of you. I have posted about it already. As someone who has a foot in both countries, both personally and professionally, I find it eerie that so much of what I have been thinking and writing about (I have published a paper about the United States and Canada sharing resources during World War II and getting into a tiff about lumber, and lumberjacks) is reflected in a work of fiction.
The FLQ crisis happened in the context of violent ethnic separatism in Europe and North America (think IRA in Ireland and ETA in Spain). The use of the War Measures Act by P.E. Trudeau, Justin’s father, was controversial and seemed heavy-handed but did not come out of nowhere. But it was held against Justin Trudeau when he used the new Emergencies Act during the crisis when big rigs converged on Ottawa and the border not just to protest vaccines but really to overthrow the Trudeau government. (the Supreme Court of Canada has since ruled that the invoking of the act was indeed unreasonable, a sign that Canadian institutions are a lot more stable than American ones, imo). So, at least int his respect, the scenario described in The Grey Wolf of dictatorship coming to Canada, seems fictional to me and does not worry me.
However, the current focus on water both because of the fires in California and because of the tariff threat (countered by both Ontario and B.C. with a hint that they are supplying a lot of hydroelectric power to places south of the border), makes me extremely nervous. Historically, noise at the top level of the relationship between the two countries masks that at the lower levels, the relationship continues to function without much friction. I would totally rely on this pattern if I could be confident that the next administration in D.C. will leave professional civil servants and bureaucrats alone to do their jobs.
I have a pleasant memory of sitting on the roof-top of the Hay-Adams, sometime in the early to mid-1990s, and chatting with young political interns and marveling at how small the White House seemed to be in real life. I wonder if that memory is real but it reminds me of a time that seemed simpler.
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Thank you for your knowledgeable insights, Angie. Like others, I am interested in learning more about the October Crisis, especially after reading about it in GW and the details you provided. It’s interesting (but maybe not in a good way) how much the current events are echoing the past. I heard some analyst say that many of the events happening now are similar to ones that happened in the 1970s but I don’t have enough knowledge of history to reflect on that so I found your connections with current events interesting. What I do know is there have been several instances of tariff wars between the US and Canada so it’s not always smooth sailing when it comes to trade.
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I appreciate your insights Angie!
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I appreciate all of the discussion questions and the diversity of answers. But this specific question is almost scholarly. The depth of knowledge of history and current events never ceases to amaze me.
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Just like Tara mentioned above, I liked learning about Blanc-Sablon and its history as a fishing village. I recall Blanc Sablon only got a brief mention in A Long Way Home (it’s where the young teacher on the ferry was going) so it was fun to venture there in this book even though it was very brief. Maybe we will go back there? I hope so because I really liked Valerie Michaud and the other characters there. Another thing I noticed is the Magdalen Islands, where the mafia killed the retired teacher in this book, is also mentioned in Glass Houses. In GH, Touissaint tells Gamache that their informant on the islands spotted shipment of drugs land on the islands before being routed down to Vermont. So is there a possible connection going on between the drug cartel in Glass Houses and the mafia in Grey Wolf?
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Wow! Mei lan, those are amazing clues! The execution-style murder of the teacher is still a loose end but you have found where it is pointing. I also still haven’t found out the identity of the informant “high up in the Montreal Mafia.” Armand does not know who it is; Evelyn Tardiff does. But Armand knows that the individual “was a scheming, manipulative, detestable opportunist”(18) which would point back to Jeanne. Did we find out in Glass Houses who the informant on the islands was?
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Angie, the informant in Glass Houses is never named. Touissaint simply refers to him as “our informant.” It will be fun to go through the series together and see what other clues we can find and what we might be able to figure out before The Black Wolf. I am looking forward to the Still Life discussion!
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