Flicking the Bic
Ratings8
Average rating4.7
I've been a fan of Tia Ja'nae for a very long time so when I saw this I had to get it day one. It's different than her last novel for sure but it's two books that chronicle a up and coming asshole trying to act like Tony Montana running Toronto. The first book has some harsh scenes that make you reach for the rosary but baby, that book two, NOTHING BUT THE BUSINESS. Jean-Max has the ultimate FAFO moment dealing with Hambone (which is that bad bitch from Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep) and gets more than one itch scratched in that. Highly recommend.
Whew. This book took what Vern Smith's "Scratching The Flint" did at kicked it up 100 notches. A bonafide prequel to his book and to Tia Ja'nae's "Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep", this book tells the story of Jean-Max Renaldo's early days through a journal he left behind after his untimely death in Smith's book. You don't need to read Smith's book to jump in with this one, and trust me it's all types of 1970s dirt, grime, crime, thriller, erotica all in one. The author did not disappoint us fans of "Ghosts On The Block Never Sleep" either, as this is the closest return of Hambone we will get.
The young Jean-Max Renaldo is the truest depiction of a real life villain I have ever read. Joker has nothing on the guy. He's more polished in Scratching The Flint but in this he's embracing his youth for all its worth, living everybody around him's life like it's their last day, which knowing Jean-Max it just might be.
As a good Christian woman avoiding fish eyed fools, I felt this book was a little too grown for me, lmbo. In all seriousness, when books featuring racists are written they're written from a Caucasian perspective and feature a significant wealth gap of wealthy white men versus poor minorities. Black women are considered sex toys to be used and discarded. Tia Ja'nae broke the mold on all of that and went far left field from the stereotype, making Flicking the Bic worth reading cover to cover.
This book is a humorous historical fiction memoir of a Canadian racist's rise to power at all cost. Along the way he does some crazy buckwild things to people but his devil comes due when he comes to Chicago. If you want to see the other side of Canada out the gutter on up you with enough boot knocking to make Cinemax at night blush you will not be disappointed.
Oh, glory!
Got it for Christmas and read it twice! Jean Max was a Canadian mofo through and through and told with the same vitrol Donald Goines would have told it in his prime.
A Canadian book more Canadian than the average in Canada that tells the real Canada behind closed doors. With the author being American that's impressive. It's a prequel to two novels with plenty of gore and humor which is an odd mix. Tim Horton's is dogshit, maybe it’s location dependent but the coffee at all the locations near me is just sewer water but it's very Canadian seeing it mentioned frequently as the drink of choice of Jean-Max.