Blind Crescent by Michelle Berry

I may have put this on my list in error, as - if I recall correctly - there was no indication in the narrative that it was set in Toronto. Certainly it's Canadian, and the author is based in the Toronto-ish area somewhere (Peterborough I think). Regardless, all of the action takes place on one street - the titular Blind Crescent - and one of the overarching themes is the generic character of suburbs everywhere, so it works. Let's just say it's in Toronto.

The novel is about the six houses on Blind Crescent and their occupants. It starts with a mysterious squatter moving in to the deserted house where the previous owner, Roger Smith, took his own life. Roger's suicide seems to have been a turning point in the lives of everyone on the street, and the story follows them over the summer as they struggle to reconcile with the after effects of that incident in relation to their own problems.

There is Jackson, a man approaching middle age who lives with his elderly parents, waiting on them hand and foot and suffering through increasingly debilitating headaches. He also helps out Mr. Walcott, an obese widower with an unusual form of synesthesia that gives everything he sees a flavour. Then there is Holly, a single mother of two, whose ex is sending strange postcards. Oliver Rafferty is rich, married (unhappily), alcoholic, and suffering a mid-life crisis involving lusting after a teenage girl. And the teenage girl in question, Grace, and her brother are struggling to figure out where they belong in the world as their father dates a woman 15 years his junior.

All of these people are connected with each other in various ways, and their relationships develop and unfold throughout the course of the book. Always in the background is the developing news story of a sniper who is picking people off on the highway, seemingly at random. Throughout the book you will think it is several different people, but don't expect it to be a mystery that is wrapped up neatly. This isn't Agatha Christie. The story is about the people, not the puzzle.

I liked the book. I like character and dialogue-driven writing, which this is, although I felt that some of the characters could have been rounded out a bit more (Oliver's household was particularly flat, character-wise). I found it to be quite funny at times, and more than a little dark. What I enjoyed the most was that it didn't all work out for everyone - there were no easy answers.

My critique is that I wanted more. I wanted to know more about the characters, I wanted more to happen. I felt like there was a lot of great potential here that wasn't always met. The ending was, I felt, somewhat anti-climatic.

Overall I would recommend this book but my hope for the author is that she keeps getting better. Three CN towers out of five.

The Barking Dog by Cordelia Strube

This novel tells the story of Greer Pentland, a middle-aged woman with breast cancer who lives with her son - a teenager on trial for brutally killing an older couple while he was sleepwalking - and her 87-year-old aunt who frequently blacks out because of her heart troubles but refuses to get a pacemaker. Greer is divorced from a man who is screwing a younger woman. Greer's sister is being physically and financially abused by her husband. If this book sounds depressing to you, well...it is.

To begin with, the book is beautifully written and the author does truly have a gift. I don't think I could have struggled through all 400+ pages by someone not as good. However, it is a struggle still; I was so relieved to finish it, because it was really starting to affect my mood. I think if any writing could be defined as wallowing, this is it - it feels disturbingly voyeuristic to continue to read about Greer's ongoing tribulations.

The title refers to a constantly barking dog that can be heard through Greer's bedroom window; nothing ever happens with the dog except that its barking is occasionally mentioned. I'm sure it's a very clever literary device, a metaphor of some kind, but for what? The cancer, perhaps. Please be prepared to read a lot of medical stuff that you may find disturbing if you read this book.

Toronto as a setting is incidental to the novel. It could be set anywhere, which just adds to my feeling of futility for having made it all the way through the book. I don't know what else to say about it - I can't stress enough the talent of the writer, but the book itself is borderline nihilist. It was like having a weight on my shoulders, to keep working my way through it. The infrequent and too-dim hope spots are just made worse by their complete lack of payoff in this grim story.

Perhaps if you are less emotionally vulnerable than me, you will enjoy this book. In that case I will give it a middling grade because I don't want to encourage folks NOT to read something they might really be into, that is, after all, very well written.

Three CN Towers out of five.

All My Friends Are Superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

This book is just truly lovely, and I adored it. It is not the kind of thing that is right for everyone, certainly, but I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish, and it would easily make the list of books I have read for this blog that I would recommend, without question.

The story is a perfect blend of heartfelt and whimsical. It opens with Tom, our narrator, about to board a plane with his superhero wife, The Perfectionist. Tom is invisible to The Perfectionist, and has been since their wedding, when The Perfectionist was hypnotized by a jealous ex-boyfriend into believing that he (Tom) was invisible. Tom has until the wheels of the plane touch down in Vancouver to convince The Perfectionist that she can see him - if he can't, then she will start a new life and leave him behind forever.

The story is told mainly in flashbacks, around the development of Tom and The Perfectionist's relationship, their first date, first kiss, and how Tom found himself with exclusively superhero friends. The superheroes in this book have the kinds of superpowers that are just things some people do - The Perfectionist, for example, is just a perfectionist. Her jealous ex, Hypno, is actually just a very handsome and charismatic person who can only make people do things they are willing to do anyway. Many of the superpowers are just symptoms of common mental illnesses.

The interpretation I went with was that Tom does not think of himself as particularly distinctive or special, and the way he identifies others is through one defining characteristic. Who hasn't described their partner's friend as "the one who is always projecting" or "the one with the hypnotic eyes" etc. Throughout the book other superheroes are described, and they are all interesting and strange (but also strangely normal). None of the superheroes consider themselves to be villains, but many of them consider someone else to be one.

I loved this slightly strange, magical way of looking at people. I think it works particularly well on the level of Tom coming into a group of friends through his partner. The story's underlying message is, I believe, about relationships - and particularly about what love is to a perfectionist; love that is often messy and never perfect, but which is often the missing ingredient in a perfect day, or life. The last page of what had been, to that point, a light and whimsical read, had me unexpectedly choked up on the streetcar. The story may be disguised in layers of whimsy and magical realism, but it does have something very powerful to say about love and relationships.\

I loved this book. It was a quick, engaging, funny, and unexpectedly moving read. I highly recommend it.

Five CN Towers out of five.

Waiting for Ricky Tantrum by Jules Lewis

Rarely do I read a book that feels too short, but this book is one. The story is about Jim, our all-but-silent narrator, a boy growing up in Toronto and tagging along with his much more assertive friends Oleg, Charlie, and Melvyn. At 175 pages it is a quick read, and woefully short.

Jim doesn't say much - mostly "What?" and "Oh." As the first person narrator he is a perfect observer, almost completely objective for the purposes of the story, as we don't really get any insight into his thoughts. Just what he says and does, which isn't much.

The novel is a collection of barely-strung-together incidents in Jim's life, mostly dominated by his larger-than-life friend Charlie, who plays video strip poker at the arcade, talks constantly about girls and sex, mouths off to adults, and is just the kind of shit that other twelve-year-old boys would find awesome. Oleg, Jim's best friend for many years, is less compelling but still has interesting moments, such as when he attempts to beat up his older brother Yuri. Reading the book as an adult, it is clear that both of these boys are terrible, terrible influences on Jim. However, no one in Jim's household seems to take an interest.

Toronto is not overly prominent but provides a recognizable backdrop for some of the scenes, in a comforting sort of way. And like most Toronto fiction, the narrative is heavily populated with immigrants and their stories.

I liked the book. The characters especially are boldly drawn and just hilarious - especially Uncle Nicky, who runs the restaurant where the boys hang out, and dispenses some really odd life lessons, and Jim's older sister Amanda, who just took a trip to Europe and fancies herself soooooo worldly. I think the author has a genuine talent for creating compelling and amusing characters, and I would read more of his work in a heartbeat.

However, I'm not sure I can really recommend this novel - I wanted more from it, more development, more growth, more story. It doesn't stop abruptly per se, but there could have been about 100 more pages in the middle somewhere. It's not that nothing happens in the book, it's just that nothing really changes - there is no central conflict, and certainly no resolution. If it was a little shorter it could be a pretty effective short story - but I would rather see it expanded into a meatier novel. Regardless, I look forward to seeing more of Lewis's work.

Three CN Towers out of five.