Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club
Ratings2
Average rating3.5
#1 National Bestseller Finalist, CBC Canada Reads Finalist, Scotiabank Giller Prize By turns savage, biting, funny, poetic, and heartbreaking, Megan Gail Coles’s debut novel rips into the inner lives of a wicked cast of characters, exposing class, gender, and racial tensions over the course of one Valentine’s Day in the dead of a winter storm. Valentine’s Day, the longest day of the year. A fierce blizzard is threatening to tear a strip off the city, while inside The Hazel restaurant a storm system of sex, betrayal, addiction, and hurt is breaking overhead. Iris, a young hostess, is forced to pull a double despite resolving to avoid the charming chef and his wealthy restaurateur wife. Just tables over, Damian, a hungover and self-loathing server, is trying to navigate a potential punch-up with a pair of lit customers who remain oblivious to the rising temperature in the dining room. Meanwhile Olive, a young woman far from her northern home, watches it all unfurl from the fast and frozen street. Through rolling blackouts, we glimpse the truth behind the shroud of scathing lies and unrelenting abuse, and discover that resilience proves most enduring in the dead of this winter’s tale.
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The author's playwright chops are clearly visible in this novel: though the story ostensibly takes place over a single work day of a single restaurant, the backstory of each character in the ensemble is laid out beautifully and tied to their state of mind on the day, resulting in a lot of drama - possibly maybe a bit too much?
Either way, it was a mesmerising read with some great insights into the psychology of casual cruelties that people inflict on each other.
I'm not sure I liked this book. It took a very long time to introduce the many characters and an even longer time for me to figure out how they were all connected. There are a lot of passages that are quite graphic and difficult to get through. I also didn't find the ending brought any closure, or brought things to a conclusion in any way.
The epigraph reads “This might hurt a little - be brave.”
Lord thunderin' Jesus there is dark stuff ahead rendered in some of the most compelling prose I've read from this year's Giller shortlist. Jaw-dropping at times. It's Valentines Day at the Hazel in downtown St. John's Newfoundland and no one is getting out unscathed. It's a bleak #MeToo novel, examining toxic masculinity, an enabling culture, and little in the way of a clear or even hopeful path through.
Megan Gail Coles is unflinching, completely merciless, and sentiment free in her writing. I found the start disjointed and unfamiliar but it came sharply into focus like a roadside accident you can't look away from. You're compelled yet can't help but feel horrifyingly voyeuristic and implicated by your gaze. I can't wait to see what she's got in store next.
