18 — Friday, July 10, 1998 — North Shore News Making Canada seem hi Noise, by Russel! Smith, The Porcupine’s Quill Press 1998, 266pp, $18.95 In his new novel Noise Russell Smith writes of Toronto as a city in constant transition, a mutable locus of rising and failing buildings, where cruising teenagers blast thumping car stereos and black-clad, multiple-pierced hipsters prow! the fashionable clubs and restaurants. In other words, pretty much like Vancouver but without the nice scenery. The protagonist of Notse is James Willing, a slightly snobbish but well-intentioned freciance-writer who supports himself by writin urple. rosed reviews of the city’s atest trendy restaurants. Bored, over-educated and creatively frustrated, Willing inhabits Toronto's chic but hollow downtown core, drift- ing from curo-goth techno clubs to faux-maritime party pubs, and viewing their patrons with a mixture of fas- cination and derision. He is Your Rights at Work. the quintessential young urban Canadian, night down to his nose ring: contormist and reserved, vet curious, even titillated, by the glam- oraus decadence and excesses of contentporary city life. His personal life is a sham- bles. Having been evicted from his apartment on the day of its demolition, Willing moves in with his old friend Piers de Courcy, who has all the pretensions to a lite of leisured high society that his name suggests, Their banter- ing relationship resembles a Canadian version of the English cule film Wiehvail aud I, with de Courcy as the dissolute Withnail figure, sup- ported by a mysterious “uncle” who keeps him in fine wine and pays for his schooling. Their relationship is also reminiscent of the films of American director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona, the Last Days of Disca) whose characters are often fussy, elitist yous: urbanites, much like Willing and de Courcy. If Noise were to be filmed, Whit Sdllman would be a good choice to direct. Willing’s existence is one If you are an employer you have the right to terminate an employee as long as you give reasonable notice and comply with the Employment Standards Act. If you are an employee you have the legal right to be treated fairly and be compensated for breach of your rights. Know your rights and avoid costly, unnecessary problems. ‘Put legal advice to work for you. _ Employment Law © Wrongful Dismissal _ © Human Rights Act matters ~ eo WCB and EIC appeals ARDAGH HUNTER TURNER 986-4366 AFTER HOURS 926-3181 Criminal marters only. #300-1401 LonsDALE Ave. NORTH VAN. E-mail: hunter@cyberion.com of constantly looming dead- lines and controlled hysteria; it is refreshing to see the life of a freelance writer por- trayed in such a realistic and unromantic light. His life is further complicated when, at a poctry reading he meets Nicola, a maddeningly glam- orous yet ditzy photographer who has a whiff'o f mystery about her. Of course, Willing is immediately smitten. As their relationship pro- gresses they become a jour- nalistic team. In one hilarious scene they tuck into an inter- view with Ludwig Boben, an aleohclic, washed-up “Western Canadian writer” who has been pegged as “hot” by a trendy New York magazine. Boben has not written anything of valuc since the seventies, and now ives in front of a TV in sub- urban Burlington. It is up to Willing and Nicola to make the writer — and by exten- sion Canada — seem hip and sexy, which, amazingly, they manage to do. Of course, things do not progress smoothly for FRONT & REAR WITH STE LEVERS FREE INSTALLATION REG. $130' ‘SALE $38° macau Tuesdays "all videos for a limited time e only" Willing. When Nicola causes professional as well as roman- tic problems, he returns to his smal!town Ontario roots and contemplates settling down with an old high school flame — the perfect anndote, he imagines for soul-less Toronto. But life among the mega malls and video stores (a barn-sized target for Smith’s satirical volleys) proves to be stranger and more surreal than the jaded restauraat critic had bar- gained for. As is the habit of many young writers today — most notably Douglas Coupland — Smith fills his characters’ con- versation with obscure cultur- al references. Lines from movies such as The Road Warrior, from the TV series The Prisoner, even ancient NHL play-by-play commen- tary arc integrated i into the dialogue, giving it a very real, contemporary feel. The novel’s humor — and there is a lot of it —- is contained to a large degree in this sharp and keenly observed dialogue. Noise achieves exactly BOMBPROOE REG. $100 $74°° useit ‘ RO ORF? : is what it sets out to do; it is an engaging and amusing obser- vation of life in che urban mainstream. The foibles and complaints of James Willing are common to city dwellers all over Nerth America. Russell Smith presents them with intelligence and wit, so that we recognize them as anid sexy both familiar and absurd. If the ability to satirize itself is a sign that a country’s literary community has reached maturity, then Canada has arrived. I only hope chat venerable “Western Canadian” writers like Rudy Weibe and Robert Kroersch can appreciate a joke. Tile Clearance Sale’ ) thing ! Mest Go! $1 000, 000 in inventory. Prices have been slashed. Granite, Slate, Ceramic and Marble from .50¢ a sq. foot. 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