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Gritty crime tale will take readers somewhere special
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Published: February 1, 2009
EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE. By John McFetridge. Hartcourt. 300 pages. $25.
For anyone with an appetite for realistic crime fiction, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is a literary three-course meal. For the crime-fiction addicts among us, it's a fix. Raw, seedy and complex, this second novel by John McFetridge has much in common with his first. Namely, it is set in Toronto, it deals with cops, schemers and organized crime -- and there are no holds barred when McFetridge places us inside the thoughts they think and the things they do.
This novel's most unusual feature is that it is the situation, more than any single character, playing the role of protagonist. With more than 140 characters, 46 of whom were introduced in the first 50 pages, McFetridge had me scrambling to identify whom the story was about. The answer? It's about the condition of Western society and the forces that shape it. In his July interview with January Magazine, McFetridge says:
"Writing crime fiction is also a good way to deal with the huge amounts of hypocrisy I see every day. I write a scene in which a bunch of bikers talk about how they'd be out of business if marijuana was legalized and I feel like I've done some social commentary and maybe been a little entertaining at the same time."
The unusually high character count is my only negative criticism. Some characters turn out to be simple references to pop culture and are not "true" characters (though their inclusion helps set the tone), and many serve only to flesh out the back story. Of the dozen or so key players, some saw action in McFetridge's first novel, and some are making first appearances in Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The net effect is one very crowded novel!
With a rotating point of view, McFetridge allows each of the key players to become semi-protagonist whenever the point of view shifts to that character's perspective. When we perceive the scene through the eyes of a hooker, we are that hooker. When we experience the scene from the perspective of an outlaw biker, cracking skulls and peddling dope is just a normal day at the office. And when we perceive events from the perspective of a cop, we have all the frustrations, biases and politicking that make being a cop such a challenge. Word choices change, expectations vary by character, and we, as readers, get inside information showing us who is moral, who is an opportunist and who is thinking of how to double cross an ally even as he publicly states the opposite.
The story opens with an Iranian doing a face-plant from the top of a high-rise, crashing through the roof of a car driven by a man who has just picked up a hooker. Stow that image for the moment, because now we're inside that same high-rise with Sharon, an ex-stripper turned pot farmer, who manages grow rooms in the building in the Canadian response to the supply shortage created by the United States' so-called war on drugs, which has focused south of the border.
Sharon's problem now is that in the aftermath of the suicide (or was he pushed?) cops are watching the building. She is pretty sure they have discovered her operation.
She needs a new supply of weed, since she is afraid to go near her grow rooms, and if she doesn't supply her clientele, they will turn elsewhere.
In walks Ray, a confident (if somewhat naïve) man who offers as much pot as she can handle. Ray, unlike the people Sharon is accustomed to dealing with, is not a career criminal.
Ray has the ultimate supply-and-delivery system: His Great Lakes barge is a floating greenhouse, and he can deliver his crop both in Canada and the even more lucrative United States. The problem is that the recently unified biker gangs are moving to take over local organized crime from the Italian mob, and neither party wants to see a man who has not paid his dues move in on their territories.
And let's not forget the Russian mafia, which is causing trouble of its own, or the cops who are in the middle of a scandalous in-house power struggle. Some of the cops are genuinely well motivated, some are regular bullies, and others are as dangerous as their criminal employers.
With its refreshingly unusual style, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere will keep you guessing all the way to the final page.
■ Steven Beach is a writer who lives in Lawsonville.
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