Compensation
by Devin Krukoff
Thistledown Press, 2006
Reviewed by Aaron Tucker
Richard Parks is a man who works
obscenely hard at being lazy. In Krukoff’s first novel he creates
Parks as an extreme polarizing virtually unredeemable character. The
protagonist is a liar, a scammer, a selfish con man who will stop at
nothing to ensure his own idleness, including driving his wife to
suicide and completely alienating himself from his mother.
With very strong echoes of Richler’s
Barney’s Version, Compensation strikes at the blackened funny
bone, caustic and unrelenting in pessimism. The construction of Parks is
seamless, a constant voice without reprieve, interjecting between the
narratives with biting comments and self admission.
Yet, Krukoff gives
the reader nothing, aside from creating Parks as a sick old man, to
really enjoy or evoke sympathy in his character; he is wholly unlikable
and it is therefore a struggle for any reader to identify with the
protagonist.
Part of the problem is that the book
simply moves too fast: at 147 pages, the novel glosses over events much
too quickly, not allowing the reader to delve deeper into the character;
the relationship ad subsequent events surrounding the character of
Christopher Robin is relayed quite effectively, but the author never
actually takes any time to critically or emotionally reflect on the
events. Likewise, his relationship with his wife seems rushed, skipping
over years of incidents without any real focus.
While at times quite interesting and
almost always entertaining, Compensation suffers from a lack of
depth, skimming the slothful surface of its protagonist without striking
any of the deep chords that resonate after the book has been put down.
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