Bad Move by Linwood Barclay

Even though I did enjoy this book, I have to say it: writers, please stop writing fiction in which the protagonist is a writer! It is potentially the most boring choice you can make. Really. It makes me think, right off the bat, that you are unimaginative, which usually isn't even the case! I know they say "write what you know" but you really don't have to adhere to that maxim in EVERY aspect of your novel.

Ok now that's off my chest; I really liked this book. It is the story of an overly paranoid man who moves his family from downtown Toronto (although I don't think the name of the city is mentioned, from the street names - particularly the mention of Lakeshore - one can assume that's where it's set) to the suburbs, to escape the rampant crime and danger of downtown. And of course he discovers himself in a world of terrifying crime out in the suburbs, because that's what happens when people live places.

You know the main character, Zack, is an asshole from the beginning, and not just because he says so. I google mapped the street in Toronto where his family lived, and it is in Leaside. I used to work in Leaside, and I'm going to tell you right now, I wouldn't call it a crime mecca. Anyway he also does really annoying things to teach his family lessons about safety; like when his wife leaves her keys in the front door, he uses them to drive her car around the corner out of sight, so she will think her carelessness has led to her car being stolen. Instead of, you know, grabbing the keys, handing them to her and saying hey honey you left these in the door.

It is an attempt at one of these "lessons" that gets Zack embroiled in the web of embezzlement, kickbacks, blackmail and murder that make up the bulk of the story. It is one of those stories where at every step you want to yell at him - call the police! Now, I hate the cops as much as the next guy, but seriously, you find a dead body - call the police. Someone sends you threatening emails - call the police. You catch a murderer? Call the police! Seriously! And even the few times he does go to call the police - one time a police officer is IN HIS HOUSE - and it's too late. It is very frustrating; but honestly, the character is well constructed enough that it is never logically flawed.

This book is funny, it's interesting, and the characters for the most part act realistically even within very cartoon-ish situations. The author launches two brick jokes which fall deliciously perfectly in the last few chapters. And the underlying message about the city vs. the suburbs - that the shit you worry about will follow you regardless of where you live - is very clever and on point. The only thing that could make me like this more would be a protagonist who was less of an asshole, but I guess then it wouldn't have been the same book.

Four CN Towers out of five.

To Be Continued...Volume Two by Gordon J.H. Leenders

I didn't know this was a "volume two" until after I read it; however, it doesn't really seem to matter. The set-up of this novel is clever, straddling the line between novel and short-story collection through chapters that connect through the last line of each. It reminded me of that improv game where you do a scene and then someone yells "freeze!" and then they enter the freeze frame and turn it into a new scene.

The story (or stories) follows different people each chapter, from Montreal to Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Hamilton: a woman contemplates having an affair; a couple discusses 9/11 while overlooking Niagara Falls; a group of television addicts leave their meeting to provide first aid; a group of homeless people eat food from the most desirable dumpster in town; a man mentors his son in the art of pickpocketing, and so on. Each story picks up from the last line of the one before it, and none are really resolved; I guess you would have to read volume three for that. Really the author is writing several short stories which are all stretched across multiple books; rather an ingenious project.

I just wish I had liked the writing more. Some of the stories had a lot of potential but I had a hard time relating to or caring about the characters; I feel like when you only give your readers a short time in which to get attached, you have to take care to make the characters extra compelling, and most of them were not. It makes me wary when a male author tries to get into the head of too many female characters; I found the majority of them here to be rather shallow.

Mostly for me it was a style issue; I think if this style of writing is more to your taste, you might really enjoy this book. Toronto is not really a big player; it's more of a sort of central place that the characters and storylines revolve around. In the end I'd say it's probably worth a read, but for such a clever layout I found the book itself somewhat forgettable.

Three CN Towers out of five.

The Killing Circle by Andrew Pyper

This book had the potential to be a fairly good mystery/thriller. The premise is that a TV critic (who hates TV) and aspiring novelist, Patrick Rush, joins a writing circle, and shortly afterward a serial killer starts terrorizing Toronto using the same methods (and general vibe) as a character in one of the circle member's stories - the Sandman. Around this same time, Patrick and the other group members start to feel as if they are being watched by a shadow-y figure.

So four years later, Patrick steals the story from Angela, the circle member, and writes a best selling novel, because why not. Then the circle members start to disappear one by one, and Patrick has to figure out which of the ragtag group of weirdos is the actual Sandman before his son gets kidnapped (which we know is going to happen because it says so in the prologue).

It's a creepy enough story, and the real strength of it is in the many red herrings, reveals and unreveals. I don't feel the author ever quite achieves the "is it real or is Patrick nuts?" vibe he's going for, but there is an effective feeling of being alone and anonymous in a large city that was done well.

The big weak spot for me was Patrick as the protagonist/narrator. I am familiar with the concept of antiheroes and unlikeable protagonists/antagonists in general, but I suspect that we actually are supposed to like Patrick or at least sympathize with him, and I couldn't. He's an asshole, and a whiner to boot. From the very start I hated him, his description of how he longed to be a published novelist and envied people who were published. Totally natural feelings I guess, but it's like, dude, just write something. He even joins this writing circle and then doesn't even have a thing to workshop. What the fuck. He's also a smug dick about other peoples' writing.

Patrick also makes really stupid choices that put himself and others in danger. He steals Angela's story, which, obviously, she's going to notice, not to mention the other people in the circle are going to notice, not to mention he knows it might be real and doesn't he think it might piss off the killer? Then he doesn't tell the cops anything, even the solid stuff like someone breaking into his house, or threatening his life on the internet, because he thinks he needs to play the killer's game or some nonsense. THEN, when the killer leaves the body of one of his writing circle colleagues in his shed just to fuck with him, instead of calling the cops, he cuts the body up and disposes of it...because he thinks he'll be accused of the murder. Well you would probably stand less of a chance of being accused if you'd told the cops about all the other stuff, buddy!

I know characters make bad choices in fiction all the time, particularly in horror fiction, and it can often be excused by adrenaline or fear or already-established stupidity. But what bothered me about Patrick's choices is that they didn't make sense for him as a character - as the narrator, he never convinced me of his reasoning. It really bugged me. Also, at one point when confronting a woman he slept with once and whom he now suspects of being the killer, Patrick says - not "I hate you," not even "You fucking bitch" - but "I wish I'd fucked you in the ass."

I wish I'd fucked you in the ass.

I'm sorry, I don't care how upset your character is supposed to be, there's about a million better ways to show it than that misogynistic piece of garbage writing. I actually put the book down at that point and said out loud, "Fuck right off." I got some looks.

So, in conclusion, this book could have been so much more, but it wasn't. I can't really recommend it, but I would probably give the author another try, because he seems like a talented fellow.

Two CN Towers out of five.

Toronto Star: Toronto Public Library launches new map as a gateway to the city’s literary hotspots

There’s a new way to navigate the stacks at the Toronto Public Library — by neighbourhood.

A new map from the city’s librarians connects books, both fiction and non-fiction, with the real-world Toronto neighbourhoods they take place in.

“It does give us a sense of community, I think and it connects us better to our city. We’re hoping it encourages people to read more items that are set in their city or their particular neighbourhoods,” said Mary-Beth Cirk, one of the librarians in charge of the project.

The map features book lists for 19 Toronto neighbourhoods from Don Mills to Downtown and was the result of a year of consultation with staff members throughout the library system. It was inspired by a talk from Imagining TorontoAmy Lavender Harris, author of Imagining Toronto and an expert on Toronto’s literary landscape.

Harris praised the map as a way of not only helping people understand Toronto, but also of potentially attracting more readers to Toronto’s literature, which is heavily studied outside the country, according to Harris.

“Factually, Toronto has a huge literature — there are thousands of literary works set in Toronto and there are more being published every year,” said Harris. “Our literature is actually far better known outside of Toronto than in the city.”

The books on the library’s list are wide-ranging in genre and form. Some are graphic novels, while others, like Bad Seeds: The True Story of Toronto’s Galloway Boys by TorontoStarreporter Betsy Powell, are non-fiction. Much of the map, though, is concerned with literature set in Toronto, which Harris says often contains a common theme.

“The first thing that strikes me about Toronto literature is how we deal with culture, culture and difference,” said Harris. “I think that is the biggest thing that books about Toronto help us get into. In Toronto we can talk about hockey and the weather but we shy away from conversations about what's different between us, what makes us uncomfortable about each other.”

Harris pointed to M.G. Vassanji’s No New Land, a novel set in Thorncliffe Park and Dar es Salaam that tells the story of new immigrants coming from Africa to suburban Toronto.

“Literature helps us have conversations about culture and difference that I don’t think any other venue does,” she said.

Writing about Toronto is rooted in explorations of multiculturalism. One of the earliest fictional representations of Toronto — John Galt’s 1831 work Bogle Corbet — emphasizes the meeting of different cultures in its discussion of the city.

“Society never betters itself without new ingredients …Where emigrants of different degrees and trades mingle, they do well, and everything about them becomes promising,” wrote Galt of the city.

Some of the books tackle Toronto’s favourite symbols, like the CN Tower.

“As the structure formerly known as the world’s tallest freestanding lies in the lake waiting for news of a better day, there’s heated talk among the other buildings, a debate that rages around whether the tower can’t get up or won’t get up,” writes Darren O’Donnell in Your Secrets Sleep with Me, a surreal exploration of the city in which its beloved tower tumbles into the lake.

The map that the library created is a living thing, said Cirk, and will be updated if they receive additional suggestions.

“We’re hoping that people who live in these neighbourhoods will see the list and say ‘Oh, you missed such and such,’” she said.

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Article by Tim Alamenciak for the Toronto Star