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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
For those interested in "New School" fiction...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Some Great Thing (Hardcover)
"Some Great Thing" is a well-above average piece of writing and an absorbing story (at least the sections that involve Jerry). It far exceeds most debut fiction. The most compelling sections integrate the growing pains of rapidly expanding Ottawa in the 70's with the much more excruciating pain of a family breaking apart due to neglect and alcohol abuse. Listening (and that's fairly accurate given the narrative style) to Jerry, with his rough workday speech, describe his ascent from blue-collar plasterer to real estate empire-maker is mesmerizing. The hints of familial disaster that surface early in the book suggest something in sharp contrast to Jerry's sturdy construction projects. Ideas about the city, the neighborhood, Jerry's family, and Jerry himself are beautifully intertwined.The other prominent storyline is not as memorable. Maybe it's just the subject matter - a self-absorbed, womanizing bureaucrat well practiced in the art of governmentspeak. We get no clear vision of Simon (he doesn't really have a clear idea of himself so maybe that's the point). His delusional obsession with Kwyet and his vacillations over the future of the park don't inspire the same passion as Jerry's singleminded drive to leave his mark on the world, at the expense of his family.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Working Class Great Gatsby,
By A Customer
This review is from: Some Great Thing (Hardcover)
This is simply one of the finest novels - first or fifth - to be published in the english language in many years. My friends from Canada have been raving about it and I'll admit I was skeptical as I approached (anything with that much advance hype tends to disappoint). But the book exceeds all expectations. It's a sensation in Canada for a reason: it's brilliant, utterly original and a brave braid of two completely different voices within a complicated, sophisticated story structure. At the center is Jerry - big hearted, powerful and ambitious. At his side is Cathleen - boozy, tragic and crazy (a gritty Daisy Buchanan). Their rise and fall - all told in dizzying prose - is the stuff of great literature. Colin McAdam is without a doubt one of the most talented writers on the planet today. After the prizes inevitably reign down on this book, McAdam will be a household name. I can't wait to see what he does next.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Dirt's the future, not the past. Change, move, use it.",
By
This review is from: Some Great Thing (Hardcover)
The bull-dozing, digging, grading, and construction in Ottawa in the 1970s serve as metaphors for the ambitions and dreams of two men, whose parallel lives exist on completely different planes until they briefly intersect at the height of their careers. Jerry McGuinty, an up-by-the-bootstraps contractor comes from a family of plasterers, a man dedicated to giving good product for a good day's work. Simon Struthers, the wealthy son of one of the "Mandarins" of Ontario, on the other hand, is a powerful administrator in the National Capital Division, an independent division of government formed in 1899 to plan the land use within Canada's capital. While Jerry sees land as offering unlimited possibilities of houses, malls, and golf courses, Simon sees land as a resource to be conserved, not for the sake of conservation so much as to keep the demand high, his own power intact, and his importance enhanced. Jerry's unpretentious and ungrammatical story alternates with that of Simon, and their paths cross when Jerry sets out to build a subdivision that will surround a golf course. As Jerry's business becomes almost totally hamstrung by the red tape at the Capital Division, his home problems intensify with his wife's alcoholism and infidelity, along with his son's alienation and resentment. Simon, unable to make any sort of commitment in his private life, also delays action on Jerry's permits. McAdam has tried to make the construction industry an exciting subject for a novel by focusing on the emotionally limited characters in the story, rather than on the industry itself. Unfortunately, Simon Struthers, one of the main characters, is a cipher with whom the reader will develop little, if any, genuine connection, while Jerry McGuinty commands our full attention and emotional involvement. With the point of view alternating between Jerry and Simon, the author creates scenes reminiscent of one-act plays, often filled with humor and irony, and inspiring the reader's empathy with Jerry. Several scenes consist entirely of dialogue and are easy to imagine on stage, but these dialogues also remind the reader of the inanities with which we pepper our everyday conversations, and some readers may become impatient with this conversational "filler." Ultimately, the novel focuses on the idea of land as potential, a parallel for the goals and dreams of the characters, which for Jerry is "something big you can walk right past...your modest contribution to the bigness of the world." Mary Whipple
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