canadian ~ twenty-first century literature since 1999


A Fine Ending
by Louis Rastelli
Insomniac Press, 2007

Reviewed by Devon Shepherd

A Fine Ending, Louis Rastelli's debut novel, details the adventures of a loosely fictitious narrator, Louis, as he embarks on la vie boheme in Montreal's Plateau. A legendary arts movement sprouted in the Plateau in the 90s, in spite of (or rather because of) an arid and barren economy and managed to survive the whirlwind of development that descended on the area during the subsequent storm of gentrification. The novel follows Louis, whose aimless floundering from pad to pad, party to party, is peppered with a pair of roadtrips and a handful of passionless affairs.

As aimless as Louis life seems, so is this book. Yes, much beer is drank, much pot smoked. Many stories are recounted, historical events (notably the ice storm that crippled Quebec) are retold. However, one cannot help but feel that amidst all these episodes, nothing really happens. 

The novel lacks a cohesive sense of progression or development, either through the resolution of external conflict or through the development of any key characters. Sure, Louis sort of comes to the realization that he is in love with his best friend, but even that is a development that comes with neither struggle or cost.

Or perhaps that nagging feeling left with the reader is not dissatisfaction due to the lack of resolution, but rather an anxious impatience with the monotonous way the story is rendered. A friend's wake is described in the same tone and pace as the description of a neighbourhood project designed to rebel against taxi drivers racing through the alleys around their streets. 

The notable exceptions to this trend -- the fevered description of Louis' attempt to save Liora's kitten from death or the powerful account of the Louis' heartbreaking frustration upon returning home to find that the ill cat, he unwittingly left in the care of junkies, has died -- imply that it is not lack of skill but rather Rastelli's awkward attempt to impose a forced emotional distance from his main character in an attempt to fictionalize his own life. 

The best moments in this book suggest that that was harder for Rastelli to do in parts. Perhaps it would have been the book would have been better if Rastelli avoided the pretense of fiction and just wrote a memoir.

Devon Shepherd is a Vancouver based writer.

 
[home]
[submissions]
[fiction]
[interviews]
[reviews]
[articles]
[links
[sitemap]
[stats]
[search]

 

[students]
[teachers]
[publicists]

TDR is produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

All content is copyright of the person who created it and cannot be copied, printed, or downloaded without the consent of that person. 

See the masthead for editorial information. 

All views expressed are those of the writer only. 

TDR is archived with the Library and Archives Canada

ISSN 1494-6114. 

Facebook page


We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada.