East Van

by Chris Walter

Dill is a hope-to-die punk junkie with holes in his boots and a room in the deplorable Belmont Hotel. Stephen is a highly paid real estate developer with a million dollar house and a beautiful family. When Stephen makes plans to convert four hotels on the Downtown Eastside into backpacker's hostels, the two men cross paths and the trouble begins. As violence erupts on the mean streets, Dill and Stephen discover that they have only one thing in common: addiction. This is a war where there can be no winners, and desperation is the glue that binds the enemies together as they speed towards ultimate destruction and a nightmare from which escape is unlikely.

Chris Walter writes with humour and passion, prompting his readers to laugh at things they never dreamed they could find amusing. Both darkly hilarious and emotionally devastating, East Van is a story with characters so strong and a message so powerful that its impact will linger long after the last page is turned.

Genres: Fiction

268 pages

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Walter delivers a hot shot to the heart with these two intersecting tales of desperation and redemption. Dill and Stephen come from opposite ends of society's spectrum, their one tie: the drugs that don't discriminate. The prose zips, the details gory and unapologetic, and the ride is unforgettable. The real treat here though is the seemingly divergent paths that end with the glimmer of hope beaming though the murkiness. A gem!

[Caroline C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed other Chris Walter books - this tale seemed the most complete of those I've read so far, with an interesting, propelling plotline; and masterful and colourful writing and story-telling. The lives and actions rang as authentic, so experiencing the book was like being on a grim trip into another world that we might not otherwise see so deeply, while also being a very good read.

[catechism · Rating 2 out of 5]

I always tend to feel a little guilty giving poor reviews to well-reviewed DIY books because I know what goes into them, but I also know that DIY can mean "mind-blowingly amazing" as often as it means "yeah, there's a REASON this is DIY." Anyway. There are glimpses in here of a good writer trying to get through, but he's hamstrung by an over-reliance on epithets and a completely predictable plot. The main characters are a junkie and an asshole businessman, neither one of whom are particularly well-developed, and you can tell the bad guy is bad because he listens to U2 and you can tell the good guy is good because he used to be a punk rocker (the author is a punk; so am I, but I have been known to indulge in a bit of U2 on occasion -- shit, am I evil???) and the second they're introduced, you see where it's going: the junkie gets clean, and the asshole businessman becomes a junkie. The businessman hatches some project to tear down a bunch of SROs in East Van (it was Canada's worst neighborhood at the time of writing and, I believe, still is, but I'm not totally sure about that one; they did a lot of clean-up for the Olympics) and it's obvious where that one is going, too: he is going to know some of the people evicted! It might actually impact his life once he becomes a junkie! Oh noes! It's not that it's not compelling, exactly, but as I said, it's been done a thousand times before, and although there are bits and pieces in here that I liked a lot, mostly this was a slog.

[Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the strongest I have felt about a 5 star book rating in a long time. Every once in a while I find myself dragging through books looking for one that will break the tedium of the ones before it. "East Van" is the spark that most recently rekindled my love of literature.

This book is so perfectly imperfect. Absolutely beautiful in its carnage. I loved the use of irony to open readers' eyes to a world that few could even imagine-let alone see themselves in! The characters were works of art in of themselves and so easy for me to relate to. That's such a scary statement on how fragile our lives can be. This book made me see Vancouver in a new light and that was so refreshing.

I already have 3 or 4 of Chris Walter's other books on hold at the library and can't wait to experience them.