Return of the Sphinx (Hugh MacLennan)

Today I spent most of my afternoon reading Hugh MacLennan's Return of the Sphinx.  Originally published in 1967, this novel approaches the French-Canadian independence/separatist movement from a reactionary and nationalist perspective. The movement, as the novel's title alludes to, is portrayed as a sphinx. "In the old Greek legend," says the plot synopsis on the back cover, "the Sphinx made the cities sick, tore families asunder, and set sons against fathers and daughters against mothers." For MacLennan, evidently, this is effect that the political atmosphere in Quebec had in the 1960s. In Return of the Sphinx politics literally tear the Ainslie family apart.

Through his older, wiser character Alan Ainslie, MacLennan does his best to tear down and discredit the legitimacy of the French-Canadian subjugated and separatist perspective. He condemns the separatist movement and the generation of the 1960s as being the immoral product of a break down in morals and education. He likens it to a kind of insanity in which people have become victims of their own thinking and narrow perspectives. MacLennan portrays Alan Ainslie's son, Daniel, as a lost and manipulated victim who needs to be saved from his insane and misguided perceptions of the world which are leading him towards terrorism. For MacLennan, as portrayed through Alan, the only correct way to view separatism seems to be from a nationalist perspective.

As with many of his novels, MacLennan also draws on the First and Second World Wars, using them to explain why his older characters are wiser, and why they are disenchanted with radical political ideologies. For Alan Ainslie, the Quebec independence movement is nothing more than  a continuation of the conflicts, civil wars, and disorder that have always been occurring.

While I enjoyed this novel, I found MacLennan's condemnation of the separatist movement problematic. While violence was not, and will not ever be the answer, the separatist movement did and does have legitimacy and should not be discounted as the product of insanity or the misguided victims of radical political ideologies.

Overall, though, Return of the Sphinx is worth the read. Regardless of MacLennan's political perspective, the novel is a beautiful and fascinating portrayal of 1960s Canada.