On the Up

It's told from three perspectives and starts off simply enough with aspiring journalist Jasminder Bansal working for a massive development firm to cozy up to the man who employed her brother's killer.

Mark Ward left his wife and child in Bangkok to return to Vancouver to work with his criminal brother. He's barely hanging on with some severe PTSD after a stint in Afghanistan

And then we meet Carl “Blitzo” Reed and things go off the rails fast. It's Hunter S Thompson channelling Douglas Coupland and I don't know what's real anymore. I get it - Carl's a drug fuelled addict running a green investment firm who talks to a pig. It becomes a problem when the pig talks back.

It's a swirling maelstrom of a narrative from a Vancouver native trying to foster a unique voice for the city but there was nothing to hold onto. Out at the edges it's frayed and messy but nearing the end it hits a singular point of clarity for each of the characters that felt like the beating heart of the story. Which is a fancy way of saying I invested a lot of time wading through the confusion for a brief moment of clarity.

I will admit that Vincent Peele is painfully good, a delicious character to hate read, and may be indicative of my own biases. He is what we here in Ontario probably envision when we think of those off on the west coast living in Lotus Land.