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Thursday, August 5, 2021

SEVEN DOWN

 

On a normal day in the near-future Toronto of 2022, very much post-pandemic, seven members of the staff of a hotel, each of whom are in reality sleeper agents with a part to play in a clandestine operation in the hotel, are triggered by a specific phrase in a tweet. The agents are unknown to each other, and by the end of the day, “Operation Fear And Trembling” has gone disastrously wrong. In an effort to discover why, the shadowy Company behind the operation interview the agents. 

“Seven Down” is an intelligent novel written in the form of the interview transcripts with the sleeper agents. Cleverly, the contents page of the actual book is the contents page of the folder containing the transcripts. A prologue takes the form of a letter between two colleagues which informs us that the interview transcripts have been assembled out of chronological order, and advises paying attention to the date on each transcript. 

We get vivid insights into each person’s personality and life, their hopes and fears, as they relate their parts in the operation. The interviews are funny, philosophical and poignant, and range from casual chats in a bar to Orwellian interrogations. You get a strong sense of the psychological trauma the agents have been through to get to this point in their lives. The narrative comes to a shocking conclusion in the last interview as the true story of what happened is revealed. 

A satire on the madness of the world we live in, capitalism, conspiracy theories and, to a lesser but hilarious degree, the weird activities of rich hotel guests, are all targeted. Cultural references abound, and an Elon Musk-like character has a cameo. This story warrants a second or third reading to pick up on all the cool little incidental details. Wildly original, economically written, profound and very now, “Seven Down” is a breath of fresh, vibrant literary air and I read it in one sitting.


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