- Paperback: 296 pages
- Publisher: Dundurn (Dec 15 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0888784430
- ISBN-13: 978-0888784438
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.5 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 445 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #304,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
Kameleon Man is the story of Stacey Schmidt, the child of a white mother and black father. He gets into modeling in Nepean, a bedroom community outside Ottawa, where he is suddenly “discovered,” and hurled into the topsy-turvy world of high fashion modeling in Toronto. He rooms with a few other black or mixed-race models, and their dialogue, while discussing the perils of being black in a white world, is crisp, clear, ironic and humorous. The problem is that Stacey’s heart is not really into modeling, even though the money is generous, and his prospects appear unlimited. He tries out to be the new Kameleon Man, the model for a German jeans manufacturer; if he gets it he will be propelled to the very top of the modeling world. He does get it. But then the novel takes off on a tangent and loses credibility as Stacey become involved in smuggling drugs, and ends up in Spain unable to return to Germany to be the Kameleon Man. He thinks he may want to be a photographer, and a mixed-media artist uses some of his photos, though it isn’t clear whether they are used because they are good or because the artist is sexually attracted to Stacey. Brunhuber shows considerable promise, and his next novel will be eagerly awaited.
W.P. Kinsella (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada
“Kim Barry Brunhuber’s Kameleon Man is an acid-jazz update of classic ‘black’ novels like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and the rebellious, uppity sociology of thinkers like Frantz Fanon. Snappy with subversive comedy and glimmering with beautiful writing, Brunhuber’s novel is a cinematic tour-de-force of urban grit and urbane wit. Like other African-Canadian writers, namely André Alexis, Suzette Mayr, and David Odhiambo, Brunhuber describes unflinchingly, in flamboyant tints, the realities of living in Canada and between ‘colours.’ To read this book is to holler and to laugh—simultaneously.” -- George Elliott Clarke, author of the Governor General’s Award–winning Execution Poems
W.P. Kinsella (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada
“Kim Barry Brunhuber’s Kameleon Man is an acid-jazz update of classic ‘black’ novels like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and the rebellious, uppity sociology of thinkers like Frantz Fanon. Snappy with subversive comedy and glimmering with beautiful writing, Brunhuber’s novel is a cinematic tour-de-force of urban grit and urbane wit. Like other African-Canadian writers, namely André Alexis, Suzette Mayr, and David Odhiambo, Brunhuber describes unflinchingly, in flamboyant tints, the realities of living in Canada and between ‘colours.’ To read this book is to holler and to laugh—simultaneously.” -- George Elliott Clarke, author of the Governor General’s Award–winning Execution Poems
Book Description
High fashion, higher stakes, sex, glamour, and great clothes, Stacey Schmidt gets a taste of all these when he's suddenly propelled from suburban model hell into the garment jungle of today's Toronto. Stacey's part black, part white, and apparently on a fast track to fame, fortune, and all the women he could ever want, though at times it seems as if he's standing still. But does he really want the glitz?
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