One of the themes of Tim Wynveen’s second novel – his first was the Commonwealth Prize winner Angel Falls – is intergenerational resentment. It therefore seems appropriate to mention that, as a nominal member of Generation X in its Douglas Coupland definition, your reviewer is normally a tad impatient with sensitive tales of boomer angst.

Thankfully, Wynveen’s subtle and generous writing advances the story beyond this premise. Set in the ominous wake of the Tories’ “Common Sense Revolution” election victory in Ontario, it concerns Parker Martingale, “an average white guy filled with dread.” Despite a successful software business and a cushy Toronto lifestyle, Parker is deep into a mid-life funk. He’s haunted by thoughts of death, by his measured, perfect life, and by the lithe figure of a young Dunkin Donuts waitress. But Parker’s free-floating dread soon finds form. His company is threatened. His live-in girlfriend goes mysteriously AWOL. And, most alarmingly, his recently widowed father announces the existence of a longtime mistress and another adult son – along with his intention to make it all legal.

Despite being named for jazz legend Charlie Parker, our hero displays little talent for improvisation. But if Parker finds himself struggling amid new and unpredictable rhythms, author Wynveen bops comfortably along in a casual, exploratory frame of mind. On the positive side, that lends an easygoing freshness and innate emotional logic to the proceedings. On the downside, it leads to a few disappointingly conventional narrative choices, and several intriguing peripheral characters who ultimately get lost in the mix.

Most satisfying is how Parker’s self-pity and complacency are challenged by other characters, especially his new half-brother, Edvard – an overgrown bad boy and quasi-intellectual. Wynveen’s even-handed approach and deft dialogue renders their debates over politics, community, family, and gender relations both provocative and entertaining. The brothers’ beer-soaked arguments reveal the depth of Wynveen’s nuanced characterizations. They also raise the stakes of the novel: in his low-key way, Wynveen proposes that we look closely at the way we live.