Rue Poupart, Centre-Sud, December 1976. A newborn slips from the inexperienced arms of his mother and tumbles down the stairs of the apartment building. At the moment that the skull should have cracked, time stands still and simultaneously stretches out: Francis sees his whole life and sets about relating it.

Guided by Frigo, a well-known local bum, the author roams the nooks and cellars of his memory and a neighbourhood infected by the gangrenous rot of the dearly departed Faubourg à m’lasse, as the working-class area was once called. An at times hilarious and troubling epic, Fancy Molasses is a constellation of (real) characters who are larger than life, such as Ti-Crisse, Josette’s girlfriend, Lil’ Mike the disgraced saxophonist and Raymonde, the undisputed champion of Rock-A-Thon.

And while the neighbourhood’s exotic wildlife fascinates, it’s also menacing. Left to his own devices, Francis will try to embrace and escape life as best he can.

Anyways, as he says.

Somewhere between The Life Before Us, the psychomagic of Alejandro Jodorowski and the opulent cinema of André Forcier, Fancy Molasses is a gargantuan tale stuffed with bits of unforgettable bravery.