It descends with a challenge upon the censors, and yet this powerful story had to be told, for it is so much a part of a struggling, impetuous generation of youth in Canada. It is sometimes brazen, sometimes explosive, always face to face with gripping reality, shocking as that may be to those who shy away from life's more lurid facets. - from the first paperback edition
First published in 1946, The Long November enjoyed six different editions in nine years, making it one of the best selling Canadian novels of the post-war period. Its last appearance, as a pirated paperback, speaks to its reputation as a gritty, raw and ribald story that few publishers dared touch. This new edition is the first in sixty-seven years.
The Long November is the story Joe Mack, son of the grittier side of Cataract City – Niagara Falls – and his struggles to make something of himself; all for the love of well-to-do blonde beauty Steffie Gibson. It's about rum running booze, Chicago beer trucks, Bay Street sharpshooters, the mines of Northern Ontario and fighting the Nazis in Italy. It's also about the women, the many women - married, unmarried and widowed – who shares Joe's bed. But they mean nothing – it's Steffie he wants.