The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr

The Sleeping Car Porterbrings to life an important part of Black history in North America, from the perspective of a gay man living in a culture that renders him invisible in two ways. Affecting, imaginative, and visceral enough that you'll feel the rocking of the train, The Sleeping Car Porter is a stunning accomplishment.

Baxter's name isn't George. But it's 1929, and Baxter is lucky enough, as a Black man, to have a job as a sleeping car porter on a train that crisscrosses the country. So when the passengers call him George, he has to just smile and nod and act invisible. What he really wants is to go to dentistry school, but he'll have to save up a lot of nickel and dime tips to get there, so he puts up with "George."

On this particular trip out west, the passengers are more unruly than usual, especially when the train is stalled for two extra days; their secrets start to leak out and blur with the sleep-deprivation hallucinations Baxter is having. When he finds a naughty postcard of two gay men, Baxter's memories and longings are reawakened; keeping it puts his job in peril, but he can't part with the postcard or his thoughts of Edwin Drew, Porter Instructor. (From Coach House Books)

• What poet and novelist Suzette Mayr hates (and loves) about writing
• The CBC Books fall reading list: 30 Canadian books to read now
• Suzette Mayr's novel The Sleeping Car Porter uses magic realism to highlight Black Canadian history
• Read the full excerpt fromThe Sleeping Car Porter
• 24 Canadian books to get the historical fiction fan this holiday season

Suzette Mayr is a poet and novelist based in Calgary. She is the author of the novelsDr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall,Monoceros,Moon Honey,The WidowsandVenous Hum.Monoceroswon the ReLit Award, the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize and made the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.

The Sleeping Car Porterwonthe2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

As only occurs in the finest historical novels, every page in The Sleeping Car Porter feels alive and immediate and eerily contemporary.- 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury

From the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury: "Suzette Mayr brings to life believably, achingly, thrillingly a whole world contained in a passenger train moving across the Canadian vastness, nearly 100 years ago. As only occurs in the finest historical novels, every page in The Sleeping Car Porter feels alive and immediate and eerily contemporary. The sleeping car porter in this sleek, stylish novel is named R.T. Baxter called George by the people upon whom he waits, as is every other Black porter. Baxter's dream of one day going to school to learn dentistry coexists with his secret life as a gay man, and in Mayr's triumphant novel we follow him not only from Montreal to Calgary, but into and out of the lives of an indelibly etched cast of supporting characters, and, finally, into a beautifully rendered radiance."

Why Suzette Mayr wrote The Sleeping Car Porter

"One of the things that I want people to take away from this book is to be nice to people in the service industry. It's important that Black people become part of the fabric of the history of this country. It gets a little tiringwhen the only time you talk about it is in Februarybecause it's Black History Month. It's every month. It's everywhere.

It's really important that Black people become part of the fabric of the history of this country.- Suzette Mayr

"It's all the time, and it's not necessarily about Black pain or suffering or victimhood. The porters wereimportant in helping to establish a Black middle class, one that had a ton of impact in all kinds of ways including labour rights.

"This particular group worked really hard to get ahead. I'm not necessarily related to one of these porters, as far as I know, but they've paved the way for me in all kinds of ways.

"Black history matters, every month of the year."

Read the full interview with CBC Books.

Interviews with Suzette Mayr

11:01Suzette Mayr on winning the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize

It's Canada's biggest literary prize with a cash purse of $100,000. The morning after the Scotiabank Giller Prize was awarded, Tom Power caught up with this year's winner, Suzette Mayr, for a chat about her award-winning novel The Sleeping Car Porter.

Giller winner Suzette Mayr wrote story of 'Black joy' she couldn't find

2 years ago

Duration 7:08

Suzette Mayr has won the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel The Sleeping Car Porter, the story of a gay Black man in 1929 who works as a porter on a train that travels across the country.

Other books by Suzette Mayr