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Noise

by Russell Smith

Noise is Russell Smith’s follow up to How Insensitive, his debut novel that nailed a Governor General’s nomination, sold well, and made Toronto scenesters proud of being the shallow poseurs that they are. In Noise, James Willing is How Insensitive’s Ted Owen about a half-decade older and now grown weary of his well-honed hipsterism. Yet he is still vulnerable to the perks that come with being a mildly successful restaurant critic and cultural pundit. Enter Nicola Lickson, a multi-pierced, tattooed photographer babe who James can’t resist. In fact, he loses all control from the moment he spots a bit of exposed vertebrae between micro-skirt and baby-T while attending the Loon Lake Reading Series. (James being sent there to report on its star guest– the reclusive poet Ludwig Boben – for Reams and Reams, “Canada’s Largest Publishing Journal.”)

The pursuit begins and Noise takes on the kind of high-jinx romantic comedy loved by Hollywood. Boy lusts wild girl, boy gets wild girl but wild girl is all messed up. Boy meets old high school flame and finds someone he can really talk to. But boy can’t resist wild girl and can’t get over his hangups about small town living, so boy goes back to the big city and resumes his half-fulfilling life, in search of his true passion, which isn’t writing, or women, or even shiitake venison consommé. It is his violin – the object that contains, he believes, true enlightenment.

It’s a familiar story, but Smith pulls it off because the moments of sheer stupidity read as hilarious takes on late-1990s lifestyle. Uppity chefs storm out of five-star kitchens and the micro-skirted Nicola seems incapable of doing anything without bending over in front of men.

Beyond the move-along story line, Smith makes his characters believable, and very unHollywood. James, for instance, may be a local celeb because of his acerbic reviews, but he still has trouble making rent, editors still dice and slice his writing, and he still has to go home to visit his folks in Munich, Ontario.

The strength of Noise actually rests on the same attention to higher gossip that made How Insensitive so popular. Smith’s characters are thinly veiled from those among us, which makes Smith’s brand of sardonic writing on the hip and jaded appealing to both Toronto’s insiders and those who love to hate the vapidness of it all.

 

Reviewer: Catherine Osborne

Publisher: Porcupine’s Quill

DETAILS

Price: $18.95

Page Count: 240 pp

Format: Paper

ISBN: 0-88984-197-7

Released: Apr.

Issue Date: 1998-4

Categories: Fiction: Novels