4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A rollicking modern historical romp through early Vancouver days, Feb 3 2010
The Man Game isn't just the best Vancouver book I've read, or the best Canadian, but one of the best books I've read in the last five years period. Henderson's language pops and sizzles like Pynchon's in this genre-bending, historical romp through late nineteenth century Vancouver. Combine his ability for beautiful and strange language with a Michael Chabon-esque sweeping, rollicking story-telling style and deftly handled complex characters and you have a truly wonderful novel that picks up speed and never lets up right until the end.
The book opens with the great Vancouver fire in 1886, around the same time the fictional Molly Erwagen enters the scene with her newly disabled husband. She quickly embroils herself in the local scene and creates a theatrical wrestling sport called the man game to satisfy her vaudeville desires. Molly is a fantastic character--a strong independent female who blazes her way through Vancouver. In fact, though this book is called 'the man game' there are a bunch of strong female characters, characters so strong in fact that they overpower many of the men in this book, which gives it a wonderful subtext of gender relations in a book that at first blush seems to be all about (or, I should say as it is written in the book "aboot") masculinity and male ego.
Filled with quirky historical facts, but written in a modern style, this isn't your grandma's historical fiction. It's full of cuss words, inflated male egos, and dirty fighting, but also makes time for the delicate art of the love story. I seriously loved every page of this book and can't wait to see what Henderson produces next. I fear that many will pass on this novel due to misconceptions about it being a 'boxing' novel, or turned away by the historical fiction slant, or those just plain uninterested in the Vancouver pioneer days. I say that because those are the three things that kept this book on my shelf for a year before I decided to finally read it--and now I know that cliche of never judging a book by its cover is true. Give it a shot, you'll like it.
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