- Paperback: 304 pages
- Publisher: Anchor Canada (April 23 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385659172
- ISBN-13: 978-0385659178
- Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 12.8 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 281 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #435,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In How Insensitive, Russell Smith's stranger-in-a-strange-land look at young provincials in the city of Toronto, Ted Owen arrives from New Brunswick via Montreal with a freshly earned degree in cultural studies from Concordia. On the train, Ted meets a mysterious creature named Max, a major player on the T.O. scene, but Max, in the novel's running gag, becomes Ted's "blond in a T-Bird," the elusive figure he spends the rest of the novel trying to reconnect with. Hoping to escape the politically correct world of academia, Ted moves in with his college buddy John and a collection of other downtown casualties and stumbles into a life of parties, openings, nightclubs, and endless possibilities. Throughout the book, though, Ted constantly finds himself out of step with the cool crowd he has fallen into. The reader cringes for our boy as he tries to dress to impress and misinterprets women's affections and intentions. He has doomed and/or imaginary relationships with Georgina the model, Miranda the social butterfly, and Go Go the unstable, vintage-bag-collecting, recycling freak. In the end, his efforts to evade his PC past backfire with hilarious results.
Smith explores some of these themes with more bite in his next book, Noise. However, his depiction of the downtown scene in How Insensitive is spot on, and the novel reads like the personal journal of anyone who has ever made the move to Toronto. Short-listed for the Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Trillium Award, and the Governor General's Award for fiction, How Insensitive is an excellent first book by one of Canada's best young writers. --Moe Berg
Review
“Smith has an insider’s knowledge of what the targets are and the outsider’s sense of where the absurdities lie. How Insensitive is astute and welcome.” — The Globe and Mail
“Russell Smith’s How Insensitive attempts what most Canadian writers shy away from — satire. In his dizzying look at Toronto’s under-30, avant-garde scene — a scene saturated with drugs, post-punk fashions, ephemeral nightclubs, poststructuralist chatter — Smith displays a satirist’s instinct for significant gesture and speech, as well as an impressive knowledge of current cultural minutiae.” — The Toronto Star
“Terribly funny and very well written. This is a great first novel. There should be more.” — Quill & Quire
“Russell Smith’s How Insensitive attempts what most Canadian writers shy away from — satire. In his dizzying look at Toronto’s under-30, avant-garde scene — a scene saturated with drugs, post-punk fashions, ephemeral nightclubs, poststructuralist chatter — Smith displays a satirist’s instinct for significant gesture and speech, as well as an impressive knowledge of current cultural minutiae.” — The Toronto Star
“Terribly funny and very well written. This is a great first novel. There should be more.” — Quill & Quire
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
2.0 out of 5 stars
well written empty, Dec 8 2002
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How Insensitive (Paperback)
another book by a young canadian talent that portrays the vacous lives of a bunch of spoiled twentysomethings. this is supposed to be about something? a coming of age book, that misses the punch and danger of a trainspotting, or the rhythym and lust of a kerouac; in its favour it has much more mass and substance than a copeland. hopefully, also, its not too autobiographical. most of the characters are in the shallow end here.
the twist at the end makes up for the time you spent getting there. almost.
smith is a good writer, so go read "young men" instead.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Oh (no) Canada .... our home and insecure land, Nov 29 1998
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How Insensitive (Paperback)
This was a very enjoyable book that delivers what it promises. An inside look at the vacuous lives of the sad 20 somethings caught in a dangerous time in Canada's big city. After reading the reviews posted I am sad to see the Toronto bashing of those from outside the self-proclaimed "Centre of the Universe". You don't have to love Toronto to enjoy this book, but if you have a deep-rooted insecurity towards the city, maybe you should know better than to read it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favourites, Oct 29 1998
By geoffrey@is2.dal.ca Martin Richard - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: How Insensitive (Paperback)
Russell Smith along with Micheal Turner (author of that amazing book/script American Whisky Bar) are the best things happening in Canadian literature right now. While not as good as his latest ("Noise"), "How insensitive" is a snapshot of a pretentious 20-something crowd in that hole-of-the-earth, Toronto. He writes with intensity (if you like lyrical, verbal diaherrea (aka fugitive pieces) then look elsewhere, but if your like me, a twenty-something year old struggling with his Canadian identity--read it! (and get "Noise" and "American Whiskey Bar")
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