Reviews

• Across the world a number of lives are brought together because of a scam. The story is a very intricate portrayal of the situation from many different sides. Riveting. I'm glad I bought it.

• The first Will Ferguson book I read was Why I Hate Canadians. Like me, Will had lived for years in East Asia and his views on his homeland had changed. He’d gone from seeing Canada as an eminently good country to viewing it as something, well, a bit more in line with what it is. I thought, ‘A contrarian! Here’s a book for me!’ I could relate to Will’s experiences. Fresh out of university, I also handed out Canada lapel pins to Asian students who didn’t care an ounce about or even know what or where Canada was. If you want to make Canada disappear, just leave it. Unlike America or Britain, it won’t follow you around, and the burden of patriotism should, thank goodness, begin to lighten. However, I was surprised to find that apart from experiences similar to my own and an excellent title, the text was decidedly bland. Where was the criticism? Why did he talk about arguing with his grandmother concerning the legitimacy of the queen? Canada’s reverence for the British monarchy is certainly a topic worth exploring (my own view is that it’s silly and even dangerous), but why drag his grandmother into it? I thought this was in bad taste. Indeed, I thought the author came off as self-obsessed and dull. And his writing was seriously underwhelming. Then I read Will’s Canadian History for Dummies and again was dissatisfied. Most of it seemed cribbed from Robert Bothwell’s New Penguin History of Canada and although I learned a fair amount, especially about the history of native Canadians, once more there were too many references to himself and not enough solid writing about important historical events. Will Ferguson’s Canadian History for Dummies doesn’t hold a candle to Sean Lang’s British History for Dummies, but then Sean Lang is more erudite. Sean Lang is a historian. I went on to read Beauty Tips from Moosejaw, in part because I love travel literature, especially Paul Theroux, and in part because I’d become fascinated by Ferguson’s popularity. He was winning national awards yet was publishing books with sophomoric titles like “Canada Pie” (a reference to the teen comedy film, “American Pie”). Anyway, Beauty Tips was the second worst piece of travel writing I’d ever read, the worst being Tony Hawks’s Round Ireland with a Fridge. For instance, there’s a bit about a county in my home province which calls itself the Republic of Madawaska and has some sort of independence claim. Ferguson chose to write about it, so he should have made it interesting, but instead he interviews a politician and just makes a big silly, childish joke out of the whole thing. Later, he goes on about the song “All Star” by the group Smash Mouth. In short, it’s not a book for adults, but for teenagers, something a 16-year old would read and think, ‘That guy’s cool.’ I think Ferguson got the idea to write for the kids from his friend Douglas Coupland, who made a career and fortune penning cool books for lost youth. Yet Beauty Tips from Moosejaw won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, which is sort of a big deal in Canada. I was taken aback, but I was also confused. I should have liked the writer. He wrote about history, politics, travel, culture, and literature. He said he revered Mordecai Richler. He’d lived in St. Stephen, New Brunswick (near where I’m from) and learned to parallel park in Saint John, New Brunswick, my hometown. He described the people in my hometown as “raw and real,” which is apt. He described the people of Fredericton, New Brunswick as less than friendly, which is also apt. I thought he was observant, so why were his books so bad? I just didn’t understand. Consequently, when Ferguson won the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel, 419, I was floored. Canadian literature had never produced a Martin Amis or an Ian McEwan, but had it become that parochial and impoverished? I heard the head of Canada’s largest book-chain say 419 shouldn’t have won the prize, and although I hadn’t read it, I imagined she was right. But I now reckon 419 should have won, or at least been a contender, because it’s outstanding. Although it is, of course, fiction, it’s a bit like travel literature and some of it approximates the quality of stuff by Jan Morris or Colin Thubron. It’s really an accomplishment; I know I couldn’t write anything like it. Much of it is set in Nigeria and it’s the African sections that really shine. The detail is incredible, infused with all kinds of ethnographic observations, bits of different language, and wonderfully vivid description. You see it, feel it, and smell it. Like Theroux, Ferguson makes you feel like you’re there. Also, he weaves various story lines together and very cleverly, and he put a lot of research and effort into this book. 419 is so good that it ought to be made into a movie. And if it really weren’t deserving of the Giller Prize, I’d like to read the book that was. However, this leads me to the question: how could there be such a gap between the books that I read and this one? Is it just that Will excels at fiction? I don’t think so, because of the 12 books he’s penned, this is only his third novel. Is it just that he’s gotten better through practice? Possibly. Who knows? Whatever the reason, good for him and well done. If Will writes another two or three of this calibre, he could become a modern-day Farley Mowat or Robertson Davies – and I never thought I would say that. I look forward to the next Will Ferguson offering, though I think he’d be wise to make it fiction. Troy Parfitt is the author of Why China Will Never Rule the World and War Torn: Adventures in the Brave New Canada.

• This involved tale of how innocent computer users are bilked is a real education for the unwary. It is also a gripping novel of woven design which starts with the tragic suicide of a young woman's father. He has been bilked of everything he has by his own greed and Nigerian computer pirates. The story weaves through a number of unlikely but eventually connected relationships until a surprise ending. It is well-written, highly descriptive of the rape of the Nigerian Delta by the oil companies and how simple tribal natives are caught in the squeeze between the destruction of their tribal lands and the relentless search for oil. This is a backdrop for the scamming of the innocent but gullible by the 419 dodge (the number 419 refers to the article of the Nigerian criminal code under which such acts fall.) It is a well-told story, but not one to warm hearts. I gave it only four stars because it took me down so many byways of Nigerian and African life that were not that interesting to me.

• Well I cannot comment on the storytelling itself because it is a subjective view but I did enjoy the story. The book itself gets no complaints from me, it is slim, the pages are sturdy and no ink smudges, the print is clear.

• The story of 419 is one that we are all confronted with everyday if we are at all involved with the internet. There are people out there who will go to great lengths to get our money in fraudulent ways. Although I have never "answered" the different members of African royalty who have written me over the years (or those who promise me great riches in the easiest way possible), I have often wondered what happens to those who do. 419 recounts the tale of a woman whose father got lost in such fraud and her attempt to make sense of this trauma and repair some of the broken pieces. But hers is not the only story. If there is any kind of idea that emerges from 419 it is that in different ways, people are connected and it doesn't take much to have paths cross and destinies change or change again. 419 tells several stories about people who's lives are affected by this one internet scam. This story and its sub stories are particularly well written. I had never read Ferguson, but I am glad that I came across this novel. In 419, he masters the art of beginning stories in completely different spheres and bringing them slowly, meticulously, and tantalizingly, closer together until they touch. This is an extremely well written novel in a style that has often been attempted by others, with much less success. The questions are only raised implicitly and the different outcomes are never really consumed - there is always the impression that the author is keeping something from us, not completely revealing what he really wants to say by leaving bits and parts of the story untold and unfinished. But perhaps this is where we should be asking questions: in difficult circumstances as in the easy ones, do we really get a handle on what is happening to us? to others around us? or are we simply working with the information we have, presuming that it is complete? Perhaps there is enough in 419 to help us continue entertain doubt about humanity and our capacity for happiness. Perhaps there is a note about how such a search may prove to be fruitless. Perhaps we don't know exactly what we are really looking for until we find it. A strongly written novel and a wonderful read.

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