Choke Hold

by Todd Babiak

After a seven-year absence, the prodigal son Jeremy Little comes home to the small Alberta town of Seymour, where a teenage trauma has shaped his outlook on life.

Genres: Fiction, Canada

237 pages, Paperback

First published April 15, 2000

About the author

When I think no one else is around, I conduct pretend orchestras.

Reviews

[Stephanie McLachlan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so very much appreciate Todd Babiak for writing about Alberta! Having been born, raised, and currently living in a small town in Northern Alberta and being very familiar with the Edmonton area, it gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling reading a published book that includes references to places and things I’m familiar with - I know where New Sarepta is! I know a volunteer fire department! I had Safe Grad (although I didn’t get pissed on...that I remember...)!

The book has a lot of detail that could be cloying, but isn’t. Details like the burned dust smell just totally transported me into the story and into my own sense memories. I love that smell!

Jeremy was kind of a difficult character to like, but that’s what I appreciated about the writing and development. He was real. He was young and confused and had shitty personality traits...just like all the rest of us! Denton and Glen’s characters kind of fell flat for me, but I found everyone else really well rounded. I also wasn’t sure that Denton’s story was necessary, but I don’t think it detracted.

I was a little frustrated by the ending, but I understand the author’s choice. I’m the type of person who can appreciate an open-ended conclusion but I don’t like them! I don’t want to imagine who was on the phone - I want to know! I need closure!!

Anyway...in conclusion...I throughly enjoyed it. Thank you.

[Pooker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story a lot. Odd, that I read this book, published in 2000, within a few weeks of having read D.M. Wilson's recently released book of short stories, Once You Break A Knuckle. They have similar themes, what it means to be a man, growing up to be a man. Usually I lean towards books written by women and enjoy finding myself, as a Canadian woman, within their pages.

But in these two books, while I do find myself, it is only on the periphery. I am the Ellie or the Diane, the wife or sister, shaking my head, wondering why it is that men do the things they do, but tolerating them just the same. Whereas in Once You Break a Knuckle, tolerating is effected with resigned amusement ("boys being boys"), in Choke Hold it is more with bewildered, frustrated, acceptance. (I do not understand why you must beat each other up to a pulp, but if it is what you must do, I'll support you. But for God's sake grow up!It's not all about you.)

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Todd Babiak's first novel and the third one I've read. I started with his second, then read his third and finally went back to the first. A roundabout journey but rewarding. Todd's writing is all about place, about home and people's lives in that sense of place. When an author writes of your place, of a place you once called home, the attraction can be magnetic. For people raised in New York City, London, or any large metropolitan area, finding books about the city and people is relatively easy. Not so if you grew up in some place like Alberta, Anyone who's lived in Alberta, or the prairies generally, should appreciate these books. There are people and situations that you will recognize and remember from your own experience. Anyone who was raised in the middle of North America should enjoy them as well.

[Jaclyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well written; just not my type of book. Certain parts didn't ring true to me, seeming to be included for the 'shock factor' instead of plot. This may have been intentional, but for me was unfavourable and distracting.

The book is obviously set in Leduc, though the town is renamed Seymour. The only difference is that you cannot see the mountains from the real Leduc. The name of the hockey teams, businesses, streets, buildings, etc, are the same, though. I haven't run into very many books set in Alberta and found it interesting to read another character's perspective.

I would give another of Babiak's books a try, both to support a local author and to see if it was just this main character I couldn't relate to.

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. I liked his Book of Stanley much better.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the strong sense of place, but I found Jeremy really hard to relate to.