March 30, 2012
Me on David Gilmour (and the possibility of violence)
My review of David Gilmour’s “novel” The Perfect Order of Things is now out in Canadian Notes & Queries 84. It is perhaps my favourite of any book review I’ve ever written, because it contains the line, “This is the kind of book that no woman would ever get away with…” and also notes the point at which I wrote “Yuck” in the margins. And surprisingly, I actually liked this book, which is a good thing because otherwise I’d be risking Gilmour punching me in the face in a College Street doorway.
The magazines is on newstands now, and was also featured in last Saturday’s Globe & Mail, which was exciting.
Hi Kerry,
This was a great review. I arrived at many of the same conclusions about this peculiar novel but think you did a better job articulating the book’s strange admixture of strengths and shortcomings than I did in my review. To be fair to Gilmour’s narrator though, he only delivered an open-handed smack to the face of his uncharitable reviewer in the College Street doorway, not a full-fledged punch.
Thank you, Devon. You’ve also made my face feel marginally safer!