The first gangster novel to emerge during the rise of hard-boiled crime fiction in the 1920s, Strange Fugitive portrays the gritty underworld of gangsterism in Toronto. The story illustrates the troubled existence of Harry Trotter, a former lumberyard foreman. After a violent altercation on the job site, Harry becomes unemployed and deals with an unsuccessful job search. The narrative presents the distraught mind of a man eager to achieve great things, but whose egotism hinders his life and relationships with others.
A New Exciting Career for Harry
Rather than to explore other career opportunities, Harry stubbornly seeks job offers that can assure him a foreman position. After much deliberation and heavy influence from his peers, Harry is initiated to the world of alcohol bootlegging in the mean streets of Toronto.
The Psyche of a Thug
The protagonist always identified himself with his career as a lumberyard foreman, and without work Harry is in the midst of an identity crisis. In essence Harry yearns for a job that will assert his masculinity, and evidently his new gangster persona enables him to mask the anguish deeply hidden within. Ironically, he believes he can be empowered by suppressing his true emotions.
The Template of a Gangster
Harry Trotter could serve as a template for other gangsters, like Tony Soprano’s character on The Sopranos. Ridden with anxiety attacks, this insecure man misconstrues disagreements with his wife as personal attacks on his character. Callaghan also illustrates the pervasive chauvinism and racism of the 1920s by depicting Harry as a bigot. In addition the novel’s main character has a troublesome relationship with his spouse, Vera. Indeed, Harry can’t bring himself to lean on his loving wife in times of need, but seeks comfort in the arms of loose women.
A Must-Read
Published in 1928, Strange Fugitive is Morley Callaghan’s first novel. The story’s strength is in Harry's realistic psychological portrait: an anti-hero like in Albert Camus’ The Stranger, Harry isn’t as philosophical as Meursault but alienates himself just as well. Harry isn’t simply demonized as a gangster, which allows readers to empathize with his insecurities.
About the Author
An accomplished novelist, playwright and short story writer, Morley Callaghan was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, Callaghan won the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 1951. His other works include Such is My Beloved, A Passion in Rome, A Time for Judas, The Loved and the Lost and That Summer in Paris.
Callaghan, Morley. Strange Fugitive. Toronto: Exile Editions, 2004. ISBN 1-55096-613-8
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