Bettina von Kampen’s Blue Becomes You was a finalist for the 2003 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award. In her new novel, she moves from small-town life to the margins of Winnipeg, setting Watch You Don’t Fall in a shabby Main Street hotel, its glory days long past. In fact, though nobody knows it yet, the Wiltshire is slated for demolition. Meanwhile, Perry, the quixotic, drug-dealing manager of the hotel, comes up with a scheme to open a beach bar – complete with volleyball, margaritas, and bikinis – in Winnipeg’s blizzard-swept downtown. He succeeds in interesting a young legal secretary named Theresa in his business proposition, but she’s more interested in an escape from her stifling home life than in the investment.

The story moves between the eccentric community that inhabits the Wiltshire and Theresa’s extended family, all crammed into a tiny house in north Winnipeg. Theresa finds the Wiltshire’s denizens appalling, and certainly most of them don’t smell too good. They’re so gritty and smoke-saturated that the reader may be moved to sporadic hand-washing.

While von Kampen is often funny, she mostly steers away from slapstick and satire and imbues her characters with an affecting humanity. Carmen the waitress is competent and compassionate; it’s a complete mystery (but still credible) that she chooses to work at the Wiltshire. Even Perry is likable in an obnoxious sort of way. The dialogue is convincing, and there’s some smart writing here, though the novel lacks polish. In the end, though, this is a gentle book that leaves us with things to think about: the meaning of home, the mutability of life, and the persistence of hope.