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Girls Fall Down
Selected as the 2012 Title for One Book Toronto
A girl faints in the Toronto subway. Her friends are taken to the hospital with unexplained rashes; they complain about a funny smell in the subway. Swarms of police arrive, and then the hazmat team. Panic ripples through the city, and words like poisoning and terrorism become airborne. Soon, people are collapsing all over the city in subways and streetcars and malls, always prompted, they say, by some unidentifiable odour.
Alex was witness to this first episode. He’s a photographer: of injuries and deaths, for his job at the hospital, and of life, in his evening explorations of every nook and cranny of the city. Alex is a diabetic, now facing the very real possibility of losing his sight, and he’s determined to create a permanent vision of his city through his camera lens. As he rushes to take advantage of his dying sight, he encounters an old girlfriend – the one who shattered his heart in the eighties, while she was fighting for abortion rights and social justice and he was battling his body’s chemical demons. But now Susie-Paul is fighting her own crisis: her schizophrenic brother has been missing for months, and the streets of Toronto are more hostile than ever.
Maggie Helwig, author of the critically lauded Between Mountains, has fashioned a novel not of bold actions but of small gestures, showing how easy and gentle is the slide into paranoia, and how enormous and terrifying is the slide into love. This is a remarkable novel: romantically and politically charged, utterly convincing in its portrait of our individual and societal instability, and steadfast in its faith in redemption.
A girl faints in the Toronto subway. Her friends are taken to the hospital with unexplained rashes; they complain about a funny smell in the subway. Swarms of police arrive, and then the hazmat team. Panic ripples through the city, and words like poisoning and terrorism become airborne. Soon, people are collapsing all over the city in subways and streetcars and malls, always prompted, they say, by some unidentifiable odour.
Alex was witness to this first episode. He’s a photographer: of injuries and deaths, for his job at the hospital, and of life, in his evening explorations of every nook and cranny of the city. Alex is a diabetic, now facing the very real possibility of losing his sight, and he’s determined to create a permanent vision of his city through his camera lens. As he rushes to take advantage of his dying sight, he encounters an old girlfriend – the one who shattered his heart in the eighties, while she was fighting for abortion rights and social justice and he was battling his body’s chemical demons. But now Susie-Paul is fighting her own crisis: her schizophrenic brother has been missing for months, and the streets of Toronto are more hostile than ever.
Maggie Helwig, author of the critically lauded Between Mountains, has fashioned a novel not of bold actions but of small gestures, showing how easy and gentle is the slide into paranoia, and how enormous and terrifying is the slide into love. This is a remarkable novel: romantically and politically charged, utterly convincing in its portrait of our individual and societal instability, and steadfast in its faith in redemption.
272 pages, Paperback
First published April 14, 2004
11 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
Maggie Helwig
32 books20 followersMaggie Helwig (born 1961) is a Canadian poet, novelist, social justice activist, and Anglican priest.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
September 9, 2014
Maggie Helwig's novel was selected as the 2012 One Book Toronto, and it is a textbook example of a City Novel; its characters are always in Toronto, on its streets and in its neighborhoods, travel on its metro and see its landmarks, dine at its cafes and restaurants. The novel will definitely appeal to Torontonians, who will recognize the familiar landmarks, but also to those of us who have never been there.
Besides being a novelist Hedwig is also a poet, and writes lyrically about the city - such as in the opening pages of the novel where she describes its winter nature - but the story she tells doesn't match up to her prose. Girls Fall Down begins with a girl falling down on the Toronto subway train, for no apparent reason - and other collapses soon follow. The reason for the supposed collapse aren't clear, and people are gripped with fear and paranoia - suspecting a biological attack as memories of 9/11 are still fresh, while others think it might be a spread of deadly disease. Amidst all this, Helwig chose to tell the story of two characters: Alex, a hospital photographer with a slowly failing eyesight and Susie, his former love from the university.
The only problem is that it simply doesn't work. Hedwig is at her best when writing about Toronto and its nature, but she devotes to much space to details about the city - we'll always know where exactly the characters are, but we'll have a hard time trying to warm up to characters themselves. Alex is distant by design - a loner who prefers to view the world through the lens of his camera, and keeps others at a distance; Susie-Paul is not as reserved, but I found her unpleasant and ultimately uninteresting; she has her own crisis - a schizophrenic brother - but their love story is artificial and melodramatic, and Susie seems to be in the novel only as a background for Alex's development.
The mystery of girls falling down is sadly never explored, and remains a backdrop for the city's reaction to their demise; a metropolitan cold, distant detachment. The falling girls couldn't make the city to care about them, and in the end the book couldn't make me care about itself.
Besides being a novelist Hedwig is also a poet, and writes lyrically about the city - such as in the opening pages of the novel where she describes its winter nature - but the story she tells doesn't match up to her prose. Girls Fall Down begins with a girl falling down on the Toronto subway train, for no apparent reason - and other collapses soon follow. The reason for the supposed collapse aren't clear, and people are gripped with fear and paranoia - suspecting a biological attack as memories of 9/11 are still fresh, while others think it might be a spread of deadly disease. Amidst all this, Helwig chose to tell the story of two characters: Alex, a hospital photographer with a slowly failing eyesight and Susie, his former love from the university.
The only problem is that it simply doesn't work. Hedwig is at her best when writing about Toronto and its nature, but she devotes to much space to details about the city - we'll always know where exactly the characters are, but we'll have a hard time trying to warm up to characters themselves. Alex is distant by design - a loner who prefers to view the world through the lens of his camera, and keeps others at a distance; Susie-Paul is not as reserved, but I found her unpleasant and ultimately uninteresting; she has her own crisis - a schizophrenic brother - but their love story is artificial and melodramatic, and Susie seems to be in the novel only as a background for Alex's development.
The mystery of girls falling down is sadly never explored, and remains a backdrop for the city's reaction to their demise; a metropolitan cold, distant detachment. The falling girls couldn't make the city to care about them, and in the end the book couldn't make me care about itself.
May 29, 2012
I really wanted to love this book. I liked the idea and loved that it was so Toronto focused. Unfortunately in making this book Toronto focused also saw its downfall. Writing about the city and it's landmarks and streets took over the book and seriously distracted from the actual story. You ended up just hearing about the streets they were on and not what was happening. It didn't help that I just couldn't care about the main character. I wish I could have loved it and finished it.
July 27, 2012
Like Robert Altman's films Nashville and Short Cuts and Paul Thomas Anderson's less impressive Magnolia, this novel is structured around an event which affects a large number of people, all of whom are connected to each other, sometimes without realizing it. This sort of story tends to be a social critique of the ways in which society is messed up, while the structure itself makes the point that we are all connected (and ought to behave with that in mind.)
I particularly enjoy this sort of story. It's not often done, probably because it requires a great deal of technical skill to make it not seem like a great sprawling mess and conversely, can easily seem overly schematic. Done well, it has a great deal of inherent power and truth.
The event in Girls Fall Down is a sort of social epidemic. A year after 9/11, a teenage girl mentions that she smells roses, then collapses in a Toronto subway. Another girl suggests that she's been poisoned. Minutes later, three other people have collapsed. In the months that follow, people begin smelling roses and falling down across Toronto.
Alex, a diabetic photographer whose illness has begun to threaten his sight, is present when the first girl falls down. This leads to him meeting Susie, an old flame whom he hasn't seen in ten years. Susie is studying relationship networks among homeless people - and not, it turns out, solely for the cause of sociology, or even solely to get her degree.
The networks of relationships spread out as the epidemic spreads and, like the strange epidemic itself, all contain mysteries of some sort or another. What is the epidemic? Why did the first girl fall down? What happened between Susie and Alex years ago? The solutions are satisfyingly complex and non-reductionist, especially the one involving the girl who started it all.
A beautifully written and constructed novel, serious but with the occasional flash of humor, and genuinely thought-provoking. Unlike Helwig's other two novels, Between Mountains and Where She Was Standing, I didn't actually like the main characters, though I did think they were interesting. But the city of Toronto, which is a main character itself, is to fall in love with.
I particularly enjoy this sort of story. It's not often done, probably because it requires a great deal of technical skill to make it not seem like a great sprawling mess and conversely, can easily seem overly schematic. Done well, it has a great deal of inherent power and truth.
The event in Girls Fall Down is a sort of social epidemic. A year after 9/11, a teenage girl mentions that she smells roses, then collapses in a Toronto subway. Another girl suggests that she's been poisoned. Minutes later, three other people have collapsed. In the months that follow, people begin smelling roses and falling down across Toronto.
Alex, a diabetic photographer whose illness has begun to threaten his sight, is present when the first girl falls down. This leads to him meeting Susie, an old flame whom he hasn't seen in ten years. Susie is studying relationship networks among homeless people - and not, it turns out, solely for the cause of sociology, or even solely to get her degree.
The networks of relationships spread out as the epidemic spreads and, like the strange epidemic itself, all contain mysteries of some sort or another. What is the epidemic? Why did the first girl fall down? What happened between Susie and Alex years ago? The solutions are satisfyingly complex and non-reductionist, especially the one involving the girl who started it all.
A beautifully written and constructed novel, serious but with the occasional flash of humor, and genuinely thought-provoking. Unlike Helwig's other two novels, Between Mountains and Where She Was Standing, I didn't actually like the main characters, though I did think they were interesting. But the city of Toronto, which is a main character itself, is to fall in love with.
March 6, 2012
The subtlelty of Helwig's writing makes this a beautiful read, with seamless transitions from the paranoia of the aftermath of 9-11, to the fear of upcoming health crises, to the complicated love between two scarred individuals.
Helwig's poetic expertise was an essential element of this novel; her well-chosen words paint vivid scenes and depict the nuances of her characters, making the setting and people real and intriguing.
"Even the homeless and the outcasts travel downwards when they can, into the ravines that slice around and under the streets, where the rivers, the Don and the Humber and their tributaries, carve into the heart of the city; they build homes out of tents and slabs of metal siding, decorate them with bicycle wheels and dolls on strings and boxes of discarded books, with ribbons and mittens, and huddle in the cold beside the thin water."
I fell for Alex's vulnerability right away; the thought of going blind terrifies me so I empathized strongly with his fears and inability to become close to anybody. His paranoia is real, whereas the paranoia of city residents is based on a faint possibility. The irony is that Alex is calm, accepting of his fate, while others, fearing terrorist attacks daily, over-react and take an excess of precautions.
When Derek, a homeless schizophrenic character is introduced, images of the many homeless I've walked past flashed through my mind. Derek made me think about how each one holds a story, a reason for their fall from "normal" society. Derek is truly the heart of the story, showing us how close we all are to falling down, how mental disease can take our lives away, remove us from our families and homes.
"None of this represents the truth of Derek's existence, his passions and his miseries, the battles he wages all alone against pains and fears and the forces of universal gravitation. The raw courage that is rewuired of him every day. His hard-won choice to continue living, when so many possibilities to stop are offered at every hand...None of this represents Derek's soul, scraped bloody, howling, fighting always to hang on, a solitary superhuman ordeal, unacknowledges by the world, unrewarded."
Girls Fall Down will make you think; it will make you feel; it will make you question your own purpose. And the characters will remain within you for a very long time.
Helwig's poetic expertise was an essential element of this novel; her well-chosen words paint vivid scenes and depict the nuances of her characters, making the setting and people real and intriguing.
"Even the homeless and the outcasts travel downwards when they can, into the ravines that slice around and under the streets, where the rivers, the Don and the Humber and their tributaries, carve into the heart of the city; they build homes out of tents and slabs of metal siding, decorate them with bicycle wheels and dolls on strings and boxes of discarded books, with ribbons and mittens, and huddle in the cold beside the thin water."
I fell for Alex's vulnerability right away; the thought of going blind terrifies me so I empathized strongly with his fears and inability to become close to anybody. His paranoia is real, whereas the paranoia of city residents is based on a faint possibility. The irony is that Alex is calm, accepting of his fate, while others, fearing terrorist attacks daily, over-react and take an excess of precautions.
When Derek, a homeless schizophrenic character is introduced, images of the many homeless I've walked past flashed through my mind. Derek made me think about how each one holds a story, a reason for their fall from "normal" society. Derek is truly the heart of the story, showing us how close we all are to falling down, how mental disease can take our lives away, remove us from our families and homes.
"None of this represents the truth of Derek's existence, his passions and his miseries, the battles he wages all alone against pains and fears and the forces of universal gravitation. The raw courage that is rewuired of him every day. His hard-won choice to continue living, when so many possibilities to stop are offered at every hand...None of this represents Derek's soul, scraped bloody, howling, fighting always to hang on, a solitary superhuman ordeal, unacknowledges by the world, unrewarded."
Girls Fall Down will make you think; it will make you feel; it will make you question your own purpose. And the characters will remain within you for a very long time.
May 1, 2012
The infrastructure is good - this could have been a compelling story. Unfortunately, the authorial voice is completely intrusive and overbearing. I didn't forget for a second that there was a writer behind the words. The actual prose isn't bad, but there are attempts at poetry (Helwig is a poet, after all) which are so forced and obvious that I cringed (ie. 'she was his person crack-cocaine').
I also doubt that anyone outside the city of Toronto has a hope of getting past the first five pages. Helwig weighs every other sentence down with a reference to a street or cafe or restaurant or bar that only Torontonians - who lived here during a certain time - will recognize. The result is that the book is already dated (some of the places she mentions are gone) and non-Torontonians are completly excluded from any sense of location. If she hadn't been so specific, it might have been possible to imagine everything happening in another city (this is a pretty generic urban tale). But she didn't so it's not.
Pass.
I also doubt that anyone outside the city of Toronto has a hope of getting past the first five pages. Helwig weighs every other sentence down with a reference to a street or cafe or restaurant or bar that only Torontonians - who lived here during a certain time - will recognize. The result is that the book is already dated (some of the places she mentions are gone) and non-Torontonians are completly excluded from any sense of location. If she hadn't been so specific, it might have been possible to imagine everything happening in another city (this is a pretty generic urban tale). But she didn't so it's not.
Pass.
March 1, 2012
This book seeped into me, as if through skin and under fingernails, and sunk a deep, heavy mood in me. In the days I read it, I felt sadder, dirtier, depressed.
The author has published poetry, which goes a long way to explain the fluidity and perceptiveness of the language in the book. I took care to read each sentence slowly, to make sure I got the full impact of an unusual but *right* adjective. Sometimes I'd look up just to soak up a reaction. The structure too is excellent.
The story is a... searing critique, honest portrayal, and vibrant intuition of society in a major Canadian city. It reminded me of Dar Williams' "The Mortal City," only far darker. And yet the conclusions aren't entirely different.
Not a light-hearted book, but excellent nonetheless. I will have to reread it again someday.
Interview with the author:
http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/i...
" I think it comes down to how the characters do find their ways, and do keep trying to do something kind or good despite all their failures, and they make these real, difficult, imperfect connections with each other and hang on to them, and I think that’s a very hopeful thing. You can just keep trying to love, and accepting the damage. And you never get it right. But you can keep on trying. And we do."
The author has published poetry, which goes a long way to explain the fluidity and perceptiveness of the language in the book. I took care to read each sentence slowly, to make sure I got the full impact of an unusual but *right* adjective. Sometimes I'd look up just to soak up a reaction. The structure too is excellent.
The story is a... searing critique, honest portrayal, and vibrant intuition of society in a major Canadian city. It reminded me of Dar Williams' "The Mortal City," only far darker. And yet the conclusions aren't entirely different.
Not a light-hearted book, but excellent nonetheless. I will have to reread it again someday.
Interview with the author:
http://www.openbooktoronto.com/news/i...
" I think it comes down to how the characters do find their ways, and do keep trying to do something kind or good despite all their failures, and they make these real, difficult, imperfect connections with each other and hang on to them, and I think that’s a very hopeful thing. You can just keep trying to love, and accepting the damage. And you never get it right. But you can keep on trying. And we do."
April 23, 2012
The novel takes place in Toronto, with a girl collapsing on a subway train. The cause for her collapse, and the subsequent collapse of other people, is unknown. People's fears are aroused and their thoughts turn to terrorism, or disease, or both. This is the background to an unusual love story . . . that of Alex, a photographer whose eyesight is failing because of his diabetes, and Susie, with whom Alex had (in the past) had a brief affair and who has re-appeared in his life.
There aspects of the book I really liked, mainly its language and the images of Toronto that the author creates. There are, however, aspects that did not appeal. I found it hard to become involved with the characters (or the book) for quite a while. There is a good reason for this: Alex is a reserved character who does not want people to become close to him. It's only as he starts to accept his feelings for Susie, that the reader is able to relate to him. The book then became more interesting for me. I also found the background tensions resulting from people collapsing, and the fear this generated, to be disquieting and surreal. I found the whole book somewhat grim. There are some books one can't wait to pick up and resume reading; this was not one of them!
There aspects of the book I really liked, mainly its language and the images of Toronto that the author creates. There are, however, aspects that did not appeal. I found it hard to become involved with the characters (or the book) for quite a while. There is a good reason for this: Alex is a reserved character who does not want people to become close to him. It's only as he starts to accept his feelings for Susie, that the reader is able to relate to him. The book then became more interesting for me. I also found the background tensions resulting from people collapsing, and the fear this generated, to be disquieting and surreal. I found the whole book somewhat grim. There are some books one can't wait to pick up and resume reading; this was not one of them!
September 13, 2012
More like a 3 1/2 stars. The book is beautifully written -- you can tell the writer is a poet -- but it sprawls. The connection between the main characters and the interesting premise is tenuous and only revealed at the end. It is unclear to me what Alex sees in Suzie. She's unpleasant. He is supposed to be a reserved character, but she is prickly for no obvious reason. Yes, she has a brother with mental illness, but it's not an excuse for crapping on all your relationships. Somehow the book makes Toronto seem full of troubled, disconnected people. It's not that bad. The teenagers sound like morons. (Also, as an aside, I've lived here 17 years, and there hasn't been a single, impressively cold winter. Anyone who lives in the rest of Canada, where it actually is cold, will laugh at this book.)
August 30, 2014
Juxtaposes the story of a photographer who reconnects with a woman he was in love with years before with a mysterious 'epidemic' in the city in which seemingly unconnected people collapse in public places like the subway. Sort of a 3.5. I like reading books set in Toronto and spotting places I know or learning of places I didn't know before, so I enjoyed the setting here. Helwig's constant interjection of place names, directions and specific locations was intrusive, however, and it took me some time to get past it. When I did, I followed the story with pleasure and found the other aspects of her writing quite lovely.
May 23, 2012
This book would have benefitted from the inclusion of a map of Toronto for reference. The novel was an homage to the city and location was a central feature to the plot. The characters movements around the city (arguably a character in itself) are charted in minute detail--which bus was taken, at which street he de-boarded, and so forth. Having lived in Toronto for three years, I understood all the locational references, and they enriched my understanding of this quietly suspenseful novel. Well worth reading, especially for Torontonians.
June 26, 2008
I enjoyed this book immensely. Helwig writes beautifully, and the subject matter was unique. She manages to weave together a story about two people with a romantic past, and terrorist attacks in a Toronto subway. THe city of Toronto is lovingly described, and it becomes like a character in the book. This is an urban tale, full of shattered city characters, realistic dialogue, and a sense of urgency that moves the story along.
January 19, 2017
I feel like this is one of those books that the story is not too important (and not the strongest either) but what matters is the atmosphere and the general feeling captured by author. Maybe I didn't care for the characters enough, maybe I didn't exactly get the the whole plot but I definitely could relate to the feeling of big modern city with its mysterious, gloomy atmosphere and lonely, doubtful people.
May 17, 2014
Strong start, good middle but even though the book lagged a bit in pacing at the end a really good read! The social interconnections between people
who don't know each other and the city of Toronto itself feature prominently.
Well done!
who don't know each other and the city of Toronto itself feature prominently.
Well done!
July 27, 2017
If you know and/or love Toronto, you'll appreciate how evocative the narrator's description of the city throughout. I was impressed by how the story was both abstract and otherwise, and Helwig did a terrific job of anchoring the story on character development and believable dialogue. I also dig how she suggested just enough to engage the reader's imagination without being too explicit about everything. I wasn't riveted, but it was just what I needed.
August 2, 2021
For those that love Toronto, who feel well aquainted with city life, you will love this tale.
Exciting to find out after reading that Maggie Helwig becomes a priest at St Stephen's church after writing this novel. She is the embodiment of the Evelyn character and I love that; the city needs more real people who care about the ghosts.
Exciting to find out after reading that Maggie Helwig becomes a priest at St Stephen's church after writing this novel. She is the embodiment of the Evelyn character and I love that; the city needs more real people who care about the ghosts.
October 22, 2017
The premise is exciting. A girl in Toronto gets sick on a subway and infects everyone. The story however, left my with little enthusiasm as I did not relate to the characters nor did I appreciate all the personal interaction which I thought distracted from what could have been a good story
June 10, 2018
Like a step backwards in time while remembering the past, the present is full of chaos and challenges just everywhere...relationships, dealing with serious diabetes, people continue to try and grow up, find themselves, possible chemical poisoning on various public transport.....!
November 5, 2018
Commendable attempts to show Toronto's diversity, but I really don't know why the TPL chose this as their "One Book". The prose that was called poetic on the jacket was in fact just cheesy and annoying. Weird take on the terrorism panic as well.
October 11, 2019
If this book was written from the POV of Suzanne it would have had the potential to be a really fascinating and complex tale, but Alex is every man I despise crystalized into one book, so, I didn't really enjoy it. The plot was fascinating, but the narrator didn't make me want to read on.
March 27, 2019
Fantastic
July 3, 2019
So effective at making me paranoid about subways! Haha! I’m still directing the meanings behind this book 1 year later.
April 2, 2023
Ahhh, Toronto….
It was also an interesting look at diabetes…
It was also an interesting look at diabetes…
February 16, 2025
4.75 - this was written for me I swear
March 28, 2012
There are two to three, even four, kernels of hard truths set down in Maggie Helwig's Girls Fall Down, a novel that takes place in the figurative underside of town. It is Toronto under the pavement, under the railway bridge, under the skin, beneath the ordinary kindnesses, a coming blindness, seeking beyond the inscrutability of tentative relationships coursing through its veins. The book takes the reader along for a hard look at "girls falling down", which becomes this idea of a subliminal reality to sanity/ insanity and accident, and how the two propel in directions that emerge as somatic pustules on the face of the city's psychological landscape.
The story keeps pace with the ravages of mind and body, which begins in a scattering in a literal vomiting after a smell of roses. It seeks resolution, not resolutely, but in tentativeness, in the drawn out diagnoses, out of a tentatively spreading mania, a certain politeness to a sense of alarm, a non-commitment to undoing the loosely tied knots and fraying threads. The city is kept on its meds, it seems, even as many cling to the quiet life of rebellion. Not out of desperation, it becomes too apparent, but out of an experimental thrill and a distinct self-knowledge of taking part in it.
I was struck afterwards by the possible metaphor the twins Susie-Paul and Derek could be standing for, although indeed the author Maggie Helwig has created ("cracked" could be a better word here) the very characters in profoundly real ways, as going beyond metaphor. What comes across is, of course, a seeing, this perhaps for the first time, of mental illness, and of those who suffer from it and the others touched by its rugged and soft tendrils. Girls Fall Down lends us a hand to use ourselves in pressing up high onto the cold walls of our cave a mark of the things we have seen of the city and have up until now not been able to relate or rescue from a benign tentativity.
The story keeps pace with the ravages of mind and body, which begins in a scattering in a literal vomiting after a smell of roses. It seeks resolution, not resolutely, but in tentativeness, in the drawn out diagnoses, out of a tentatively spreading mania, a certain politeness to a sense of alarm, a non-commitment to undoing the loosely tied knots and fraying threads. The city is kept on its meds, it seems, even as many cling to the quiet life of rebellion. Not out of desperation, it becomes too apparent, but out of an experimental thrill and a distinct self-knowledge of taking part in it.
I was struck afterwards by the possible metaphor the twins Susie-Paul and Derek could be standing for, although indeed the author Maggie Helwig has created ("cracked" could be a better word here) the very characters in profoundly real ways, as going beyond metaphor. What comes across is, of course, a seeing, this perhaps for the first time, of mental illness, and of those who suffer from it and the others touched by its rugged and soft tendrils. Girls Fall Down lends us a hand to use ourselves in pressing up high onto the cold walls of our cave a mark of the things we have seen of the city and have up until now not been able to relate or rescue from a benign tentativity.
April 1, 2012
A group of young girls ride the train, having just left the park. They were having a conversation: "No, but I think monkeys are more morally superior than people, because monkeys don't use landmines and stuff, do they?" Zoe was saying, when they see the man; dirty, skinny sitting on the bench and talking to himself. Later, on the subway, they fall. And this is followed by a series of falling across town. Parents showing up at hospitals with sick kids. Middle-aged men with cases of cardiac episodes. But, the girls are aware of their unique position. They were the first who fell. They know more than anyone else.
Alex is on the same train. He gets off the train, pushes through people and gets to the street level quickly. He looses himself in the closest convenience store to pick up a disposable camera. He feels better with a camera in his hand. That's when he runs into Adrian, a friend/colleague from over a decade ago. Adrian tells him Susie-Paul is back in Toronto. "He would come when she called. Watch when she left. Lose her, lose his eyes. Lost the winter light, and end up with nothing." That's how Alex is when Susie-Paul is around.
Many things happen in this book. There is past, Susie and Chris while Alex watches their destructive relationship. There is present Alex fighting a sever case of diabetes, Susie-Paul looking for her schizophrenic brother, Derek, the fallen girls and a city shrouded in FEAR. And there is future, undecided, uncertain, and unclear.
Nouns and adjectives are well chosen. The book is well written. The streets are familiar. But the book falls short of telling a story. It is poetry written in prose with no definitive beginning no definitive end, but many middles.
Chosen as "Toronto One Book --Community Read of 2012", this book sets in Toronto subway. Ironically, I read most of the book on the subway.
Alex is on the same train. He gets off the train, pushes through people and gets to the street level quickly. He looses himself in the closest convenience store to pick up a disposable camera. He feels better with a camera in his hand. That's when he runs into Adrian, a friend/colleague from over a decade ago. Adrian tells him Susie-Paul is back in Toronto. "He would come when she called. Watch when she left. Lose her, lose his eyes. Lost the winter light, and end up with nothing." That's how Alex is when Susie-Paul is around.
Many things happen in this book. There is past, Susie and Chris while Alex watches their destructive relationship. There is present Alex fighting a sever case of diabetes, Susie-Paul looking for her schizophrenic brother, Derek, the fallen girls and a city shrouded in FEAR. And there is future, undecided, uncertain, and unclear.
Nouns and adjectives are well chosen. The book is well written. The streets are familiar. But the book falls short of telling a story. It is poetry written in prose with no definitive beginning no definitive end, but many middles.
Chosen as "Toronto One Book --Community Read of 2012", this book sets in Toronto subway. Ironically, I read most of the book on the subway.
August 18, 2008
Sucked me in immediately then petered out by the end. Despite descriptions of Toronto that give the impression that the author really understands and feels akin to Toronto there is definitely an undercurrent that leaves no doubt that this novel is not about "Toronto the good". That is, however, not to say that the book is flawed, it feels out those frequently overlooked, non-trendy, unpleasant cracks and gutters that are all over Toronto. Churches that double as soup kitchens, the mentally ill who choose to live by the Don River, and hapless elderly people living in windowless basement cubicles. This is Toronto, the down, the dirty, and filled with downtrodden.
Downtrodden is how you will feel by the end of this book, with some twinges of conscience that remind you that Toronto's sickness (in its most Hellenic curse ridden sense) is the human predilection for apathy towards some of its more unjust social issues.
Could be wrong about this as its main issue, but I felt it nonetheless.
Inscription:
Alexander Park 726pm. Upon entering the park a large elderly woman sitting upon her front stairs with a ghetto blaster is singing loudly to Italian music ala Frank Paglieria in the wedding party of the Godfather movie. The golden retriever sitting on the other side of the screen door barks along as she sings.
Within the park a drum troupe is practicing, two lesbians are making out under a tree, children are on swings in the playground, a group of young people play kick ball, children ride by on bikes, dogs walk by on leashes, Chinese men sit on benches talking with one another, skateboarders do jumps on the half pipe, a child in a life jacket jumps into the deep end of the pool creating a splash, and Erik and I take it all in from a park bench.
Downtrodden is how you will feel by the end of this book, with some twinges of conscience that remind you that Toronto's sickness (in its most Hellenic curse ridden sense) is the human predilection for apathy towards some of its more unjust social issues.
Could be wrong about this as its main issue, but I felt it nonetheless.
Inscription:
Alexander Park 726pm. Upon entering the park a large elderly woman sitting upon her front stairs with a ghetto blaster is singing loudly to Italian music ala Frank Paglieria in the wedding party of the Godfather movie. The golden retriever sitting on the other side of the screen door barks along as she sings.
Within the park a drum troupe is practicing, two lesbians are making out under a tree, children are on swings in the playground, a group of young people play kick ball, children ride by on bikes, dogs walk by on leashes, Chinese men sit on benches talking with one another, skateboarders do jumps on the half pipe, a child in a life jacket jumps into the deep end of the pool creating a splash, and Erik and I take it all in from a park bench.
February 16, 2017
This was an ok read only because I used to live in the neighborhood described in the book and it was neat to walk around them again in my mind.
March 22, 2012
This was Toronto's "one book" for 2012. It was definitely a book about Toronto. The author loved to identify exactly where the characters were at every point. They didn't walk somewhere -- they walked to a specific, named corner. I didn't really see the point of that -- it might have helped evoke a sense of place for those familiar with Toronto, but it just read strangely IMO. Was she just trying really, really hard to make this a "Toronto novel"?
When the book started, I was afraid that she couldn't write a single noun without an adjective, but that seemed to ease off as the book progressed. The author is a poet and likes to play with words. Sometimes that was lovely, sometimes it seemed almost pretentious.
Off all the characters, the only one I was interested in was the first girl who fell, and we didn't see all that much of her. I'm never all that enamoured of a novel when I simply cannot like the main characters, and this was one of those books.
I can see the appeal of Girls Fall Down in a general sense, and why it was chosen to be the city's one book, but on a personal level, it fell flat. There were moments that grabbed me, but for the most part, I just wanted to get on with it.
When the book started, I was afraid that she couldn't write a single noun without an adjective, but that seemed to ease off as the book progressed. The author is a poet and likes to play with words. Sometimes that was lovely, sometimes it seemed almost pretentious.
Off all the characters, the only one I was interested in was the first girl who fell, and we didn't see all that much of her. I'm never all that enamoured of a novel when I simply cannot like the main characters, and this was one of those books.
I can see the appeal of Girls Fall Down in a general sense, and why it was chosen to be the city's one book, but on a personal level, it fell flat. There were moments that grabbed me, but for the most part, I just wanted to get on with it.
May 20, 2013
Good lord, I enjoyed this book INTENSELY. It's sour and dark, a swirl of hot and cold.
It's about the city of Toronto, sort of, kind of. It's actually about two old flames who meet again after being long apart, and about the existentially frightening problems they're each dealing with. But the city is the POV for a large chunk of the story, and the city functions as a character, as a third old flame dealing with existentially frightening problems of its own (including the titular mass psychogenic illness of unexplained fainting in the subways).
You know that city-POV thing in China Miéville's early books, where it leaps playfully from district to district and from impression to brief impression, giving an illusion of an impossibly detailed outline of the whole? It's kind of like that, but even better, and not undermined by the various other weaknesses (character especially) in early Miéville. (Insert frustrated rant about _Iron Council_ and _Perdido Street Station_ here.)
Anyway, the character writing is excellent, including the city-as-character, but I might call the sentence-to-sentence prose the star of the show, because it is straight-up world class. It was just a delight to read.
It's about the city of Toronto, sort of, kind of. It's actually about two old flames who meet again after being long apart, and about the existentially frightening problems they're each dealing with. But the city is the POV for a large chunk of the story, and the city functions as a character, as a third old flame dealing with existentially frightening problems of its own (including the titular mass psychogenic illness of unexplained fainting in the subways).
You know that city-POV thing in China Miéville's early books, where it leaps playfully from district to district and from impression to brief impression, giving an illusion of an impossibly detailed outline of the whole? It's kind of like that, but even better, and not undermined by the various other weaknesses (character especially) in early Miéville. (Insert frustrated rant about _Iron Council_ and _Perdido Street Station_ here.)
Anyway, the character writing is excellent, including the city-as-character, but I might call the sentence-to-sentence prose the star of the show, because it is straight-up world class. It was just a delight to read.
April 27, 2012
Toronto One Book 2012
Notable quotes:
pg. 89 "He did remember waking up, not knowing why he was in that bed but knowing he had gone somehow way too far. That whatever he had done, it had been partly because she was there, because she was all sugar and danger to him, and he pushed every limit when he was near her."
pg. 91 " He felt the whole shape of the past trembling in his mind, like a picture turning animated, in jerky stop-motion."
pg. 101 "... that dangerous maze of emotion and memory."
pg. 107 "Alex sighed and leaned against the bricks. For a minute he saw the whole city (Toronto) as one great cry for attention, and he thought that maybe people died on the street not from cold or heat or hunger but only because no one got enough attention."
pg. 108 " 'but even when you see something with your own eyes, you don't always know what it means until somebody tells you what happened, do you?"
pg. 116 "Far away from himself and falling, broken open inside her."
Notable quotes:
pg. 89 "He did remember waking up, not knowing why he was in that bed but knowing he had gone somehow way too far. That whatever he had done, it had been partly because she was there, because she was all sugar and danger to him, and he pushed every limit when he was near her."
pg. 91 " He felt the whole shape of the past trembling in his mind, like a picture turning animated, in jerky stop-motion."
pg. 101 "... that dangerous maze of emotion and memory."
pg. 107 "Alex sighed and leaned against the bricks. For a minute he saw the whole city (Toronto) as one great cry for attention, and he thought that maybe people died on the street not from cold or heat or hunger but only because no one got enough attention."
pg. 108 " 'but even when you see something with your own eyes, you don't always know what it means until somebody tells you what happened, do you?"
pg. 116 "Far away from himself and falling, broken open inside her."
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