The Loved and the Lost (1951)

"He wanted to go; but to strut out with an air of offended dignity would be to cheapen her. Nothing they could say could destroy his faith in her, and it was like the night when he had been in the Café St. Antoine talking with Elton Wagstaffe and he had known he was called upon to be always with her, even while she was being viciously misunderstood."

Jim McAlpine, the protagonist of Morley Callaghan's Governor General's Award winning The Loved and the Lost, is a man divided against himself. He's a writer who comes from humble beginnings and has high social aspirations, aspirations that might be realized through a relationship with wealthy Catherine Carver, but whose heart and humanity are touched by working class Peggy Sanderson. Rumours abound about Peggy, rumours regarding her relationships with local black musicians, and McAlpine becomes consumed by the need to "save" her before the prejudices of the rest of world destroy her.

Peggy's actions, which are more innocent than she's given credit for, insipre hatred from every corner. White men, whose advances she consistently turns down, resent her and assume that she's having affairs with black men. Black men fear that she's going to draw trouble their way. White and black women alike loathe her. McAlpine is the only one who seems toto see the good in her, though even his affection is ultimately conditional, a discovery which devastates him.

Callaghan unfolds the story in a straight-forward and unfussy way. He confronts issues of race directly, but never allows the story to become preachy. Ultimately, The Loved and the Lost is a memorable novel both for the complex way that it explores its subject and for the sinister undercurrent that runs through the text, just below the surface. There's something rather alarming about the way that McAlpine tries to insinuate himself into Peggy's life. He plots to slip under her radar, to wear down her resistance, to force himself into her life even as she makes it clear that she does not desire her presence. McAlpine clearly sees himself as the (increasingly tragic) hero of the story, but the novel itself is more clear-sighted where he is concerned. It's a fascinating portrayal that practically demands a second reading and The Loved and the Lost is a novel that is definitely worth returning to.