IN THE CITY OF PIGS

TITLE - IN THE CITY OF PIGS 

WRITTEN BY - ANDRE FORGET 

PUBLISHED BY - DUNDURN PRESS

PUBLICATION DATE - 12TH JULY 2022

Dundurn Press’ imprint Rare Machines has produced some impressive left-field novels in its short life, and André Forget’s “In the City of Pigs” joins that list with inscrutable aplomb. 

Forget has a succinct style that is a joy to read, and the novel has an air of clinical intellectualism. His descriptive writing is vivid and rich as he describes the sights and sounds of Toronto. A knowledge of Toronto would probably add another dimension to the story, as it is very much a love-letter to that city, it’s history and present, but non-residents can read the book and easily immerse themselves in a city so well described. 

As to the story itself, the book deals largely with an underground avant-garde music collective, complete with modern agitprop Twitter posts and anonymous videos in abandoned warehouses; an exciting premise which evokes the rave culture of the ‘90s with a postmodern sheen. But Fera Civitatem’s plans are more far-reaching than that, demanding a kind of reimagining of society itself. Forget’s depiction of one of their secret concerts is visceral and brutal, the atonal lovechild of a philharmonic orchestra and the Jim Rose Circus.

Undoubtedly the book is pretentious in parts, and in many ways cold and lacking emotion, but not in a way that I could take seriously. In fact, the pretentiousness seemed almost to be played for laughs. Readers with a love of classical musical will find much to enjoy (and, no doubt, hate) in the book. 

Characterisation is a little hit and miss, with only Alexander really standing out amongst a mostly indistinguishable supporting cast made up of unlikeable arty types. Chapters are generally short, maybe some a little too short, but it all seems just right, and the storytelling is brisk. 

Part contemporary fiction, part exposé of economic divisions, part musicological thriller; I would call the book intellectually absurdist, and despite its pretension, has a strong thread of irreverence and imagination running through it. While not precisely unputdownable, I did find myself picking up the book often for just one more chapter. It is definitely not for everyone, but I am comfortable with novels that are unconventional, and I enjoyed this one very much.

 

THE BOOK OF MALCOLM

 Fraser Sutherland was a noted Canadian writer and poet, and it truly shows in the beautiful, honest prose in his book about the life and death of his son, Malcolm. Fraser completed this memoir shortly before his own death, which makes this book even more poignant. 

Malcolm had suffered from schizophrenia from his late teens and died on Boxing Day, 2009, at the young age of 26. Part one of the book deals with Malcolm’s death and the aftermath. It becomes clear from the tributes paid to Malcom by his friends that he was a rare being who positivity affected the lives of many people. Fraser’s reminiscences about Malcolm’s quirks and the role he played in the family dynamic are funny and touching. Malcolm was that special kind of person everyone gravitates towards. 

Fraser’s description of Malcolm’s death is unflinchingly honest and lucid. He shares his innermost thoughts about the well-meaning chaos of his son’s funeral and the throng of relatives that descended on them after. Anyone who has been in this situation will recognise this. Fraser’s way of dealing with Malcolm’s death jars with his wife’s, who, eager to talk about their son, can’t understand her husband’s reluctance to and distance from the subject. 

The second part relates Malcolm’s birth and early life. The section on the birth itself is both funny and slightly embarrassing as his wife’s anatomical details are laid bare. Malcolm becomes an imaginative and precocious boy and this section is a joy to read as we are introduced to his imagination in full flow in games and writing.

The third part of the book is the toughest to read as Malcolm begins to have psychotic episodes and other mental health problems. Extracts from his diary, both articulate and disturbing, show a troubled soul. The book ends more or less where it began, just before Malcolm’s last Christmas. 

“The Book of Malcolm” is superb. It is a short but powerful book which, as the afterword by one of Fraser’s friends explains, doesn’t offer any moral at the end but merely celebrates a life. Brutally honest and relatable, it is vigorously recommended for anyone struggling with mental health issues or the passing of a loved one.

THE BEATLE BANDIT

On July 24th 1964, Matthew Kerry Smith, wearing a Beatle wig, burst into a Toronto bank toting a semi-automatic rifle - with a barrel painted pink to disguise its purpose in a guitar case - escaping with over $25,000 after a street gunfight which claimed the life of a local man, Jack Blanc, and led to a violent crime spree and a national manhunt. When Smith was eventually caught, his crimes raised wider issues of gun control, mental health and the death penalty in Canada. 

The tale of the robbery itself is riveting and lucidly told; many sentences made me catch my breath, and this quality of writing is consistent throughout the book. A word of warning, the details of Jack Blanc’s and others’ injuries are uncompromising. Nate Hendley writes with forensic clarity as he describes the robbery and its aftermath, offering a lurid insight into Smith’s life and motivations. The impact of Blanc’s death on his family and community is touchingly told. 

Illustrated with photographs of Smith, the crime scene and his trial, “The Beatle Bandit” is a fascinating, brutal, unflinching true crime story, shorn of sensationalism, which will thrill you and anger you in equal measure.

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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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