All My Friends Are Superheroes
by Andrew Kaufman
Coach House Books, 2003
Reviewed By JC Bellringer
A friend of mine gave me a copy of Andrew Kaufman's All My Friends Are
Superheroes recently. "You'll like it," he said.
"It's
a cute little book."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement. In my experience,
if
overheard, such
comments would lead most writers to contemplate a cute
little suicide.
And even though it proved to be both cute and little
(a brisk 106
pages in full), in the interest of public safety let's
instead call it a
sweet and funny book. At times disarming for both its
humour and its
honesty, All My Friends Are Superheroes is the kind
of book that inspires
readers to share passages out loud to anyone within
earshot at regular
intervals.
The novella tells the tale of Tom, a relatable if
underdrawn
protagonist, who has just the length of a flight from
Toronto to Vancouver
to break a spell that has been put on his wife. Under
it, his wife, known
both affectionately and bitterly as "The
Perfectionist," has lost the
ability to see Tom. The mischievous and malicious
Hypno, The Perfectionist's
ex-boyfriend, cast the spell on her shortly after she
married Tom. It seems
all of Tom's enemies are superheroes as well.
The story is told largely through flashback as Tom
(invisibly)
accompanies his wife to Vancouver, and is interspersed
with laugh-out-loud
funny descriptions of some of the 249 superheroes who
make the Greater
Toronto Area their home. ("None of them have secret
identities. Very few of
them wear costumes.") The passages describing these
superheroes, while
completely tangential and generally unrelated to the
plot of the book, are
among the sharpest in it. While Kaufman's superheroes
do not possess
traditional (or even useful) superpowers, most are
surprisingly clever
abstractions that are instantly recognizable, if not
enviable. They range
from the strictly comedic (The Copycat, who possesses
"the ability to mimic
anyone's personal style," and The Seeker, who "knows
how to get anywhere
from any place, even if he's never been there before")
to the unexpectedly
poignant (Mistress Cleanasyougo: "At the end of every
day she folds her
clothes. She never leaves scissors on the table, pens
with no ink are thrown
in the trash, wet towels are always hung up, dishes
are
washed directly and
nothing is left unsaid"). There's something
undeniably
charming about
writing that is so unnecessarily clever.
But for all its knowing wit and comedic originality, All My Friends
Are Superheroes is, in truth, a sweet urban love
story. Kaufman deftly
locates the emotional centre of the story in Tom's
suffering; somehow, using
the metaphor of invisibility to illustrate Tom's sense
of alienation and
estrangement from his partner never becomes the
obvious
contrivance or
one-note joke that it might in the hands of a less
sensitive writer.
Kaufman's lively, snappy prose is perfectly paced -
just when the story
verges on the intolerably cute Kaufman engineers a
sudden but welcome turn
either cynical or sad; and when the narrative
threatens
to turn maudlin or
melodramatic, Kaufman's quick wit and honest sentiment
keep the writing from
going anywhere predictable.
And while the book is uncomplicated in its tender and
gentle
approach to love, delightful ambiguities exist in
lines
like "Tom and The
Perfectionist circulated through the hot room. The
Perfectionist was
sweating (perfectly)." At times like these, it's hard
to tell if Tom resents
or admires his wife, if he's speaking out of
bitterness
or infatuation. It's
this kind of subtle touch that gives All My Friends
Are Superheroes a kind
of depth that you don't expect to find in such a cute
and little book.
JC Bellringer is a writer living in London, Ontario. |
|
