Humour pulls you in as part of the joke

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This article was published 17/09/2011 (5497 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Easy to Like

By Edward Riche

Anansi, 293 pages, $30

 

IN his new comic novel, Newfoundland writer Edward Riche has travelled to Toronto but he still sticks pretty close to home.

Easy to Like follows Elliot Johnson, a C-list Hollywood screenwriter with a passion for winemaking who finds himself grounded in Hogtown en route to France because of an expired passport.

Running from his part in a hushed Hollywood scandal and a federal investigation into his vineyard about grape smuggling, Johnson finds work with the CBC.

Along the way, he meets different people — some he likes, some he despises — including a charming second-in-command at the broadcaster he develops feelings for.

Disillusioned with his job and feeling that there’s not much soul left in the company, Johnson tries to finagle his way to the top.

The parallels between Riche and his protagonist — beyond the fact that their first names both start with E — are interesting to note.

It’s not to say Riche owns a vineyard that’s being investigated or that he’s involved in a scandal — who are we to know? But both he and Johnson grew up in the Maritimes both studied film and both wound up working in the media.

Riche’s humour here isn’t as “savagely funny” as critics have praised his earlier works for being. His 1997 debut, Rare Birds, was adapted into a movie starring William Hurt and Molly Parker, and his followup, 2004’s Nine Planets, won a regional literary award.

His dry, observant, satiric approach here works. Riche does well in making his characters, er, easy to like, though there are a few characters that readers will end up rooting against.

On one hand, Johnson comes with his pretensions and judgments. But his self-deprecating nature makes him relatable and not seemingly evil.

The other characters come off as quirky but believable, and equally as relatable, though Riche never spends much time developing them further.

Where the novel really struggles, however, is in its painstaking attention to detail.

While all the information on wines and winemaking may wet the tongues of oenophiles, it may be too dry for readers who simply don’t care about this minutiae.

Still, Johnson’s obsession with the nectar of the gods and his quest to replicate the perfect-tasting wine does allow for comedy.

In one instance, Johnson tries to shamelessly steal a bottle of wine from a friend’s dinner party only to stumble down a hill during his getaway and walk back like nothing had happened.

It’s a style of humour that pulls you in as part of the joke, because Riche’s literary alter ego isn’t afraid to restrain his tongue.

 

Matt Preprost is a reporter with Canstar News in Winnipeg.