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Cadillac Couches

by Sophie B. Watson

Admit it: we’ve all had our share of celebrity crushes. In her quirky first novel, set in the late 1990s, author Sophie B. Watson explores the fantasy of meeting a fave celeb through her protagonists, Annie and Isobel, two music-obsessed twentysomethings who embark on a road trip across Canada in the hopes of meeting Annie’s number one crush, singer Hawksley Workman.

Travelling from Edmonton to Montreal in a 1972 Volkswagen Beetle is a grand adventure for the two girls, both of whom are looking to escape their daily realities: Annie is trying to forget a former flame and cope with her anxiety and minor OCD, while Isobel can’t break her “use ’em and lose ’em” habit with men. Both main characters are well drawn, and possess a seemingly endless series of flaws and eccentricities. Annie’s tendency to fall in love too hard is endearing, and Isobel’s femme fatale nature perfectly complements her tendency to speak “Franglais” when trying to appear more mature.

One of the novel’s most intriguing aspects is how it straddles the line between traditional fiction and the type of writing usually confined to Internet fan forums. Watson creates fictionalized versions of real-life musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Dan Bern, and Workman, but what keeps this novel from slipping too deeply into fan-fiction territory are the richly developed main characters. Fortunately, neither Annie nor Isobel could be classified as a “Mary Sue,” the term used to categorize generic and stereotypical female characters in fan fiction.

The road trip that accounts for the majority of the novel helps keep the story moving at a brisk pace, while also making the book  as much an ode to Canada as to music. The novel never strays too far from its lighthearted tone; the more emotional moments are almost as brief as Annie and Isobel’s pit stops.

 

Reviewer: Suzanne Gardner

Publisher: Brindle & Glass

DETAILS

Price: $19.95

Page Count: 224 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 978-1-92697-290-9

Released: Sept.

Issue Date: 2012-9

Categories: Fiction: Novels

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