Great Realizations

by Hugh Hood

Hugh Hood skillfully presents the penultimate book in his ambitious and highly acclaimed 12-volume New Age series, which poignantly animates the social fabric of Canada in the latter part of the 20th century and beyond.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[David]

In this v.11, the narrative ventures into the future. Not far—c.2005 as written c. 1995-96–but I’m not sure it works. It’s ridiculous to react to the fiction poorly because it isn’t ‘real’. Yet I think all Hood’s admired predecessors stayed within the conceit that the narrator is remembering all that is described as completed past action. Of course, Matthew is doing that too; we’re just asked to imagine him remembering from a point still in the author's (as it turns out, unachieved) future. The vision of life in 2005 (as written in 95-96) is sometimes accurate, sometimes over-optimistic. The contemporary (2020s') reader must also approach the novel somewhat differently from those readers who read it upon publication; it has now become the past and is not, in several aspects, what someone once called A Dance to the Music of Time: an acceptable version of what actually happened. The novel has an optimism which has been somewhat lacking a little earlier in the sequence. That is welcome. But... 2nd reading: Some of what I considered its excesses (especially the "space baby" thread) are more clearly satiric on 'sober second thought.' Matthew seems especially harsh with respect to Tony. Other aspects of the Goderich personal life are also still tough to reconcile with the style of v1-10. The whole thread of the Titian painting and the orchestrated unification of so many threads in the final chapter reads a bit like self-aggrandizement (at least on Matthew's part). It remains impossible to imagine Nicholas Jenkins being so much focused on himself... 4th reading: By the narrator's calendar references, the story begins in 2000, lasts about 2 years, and ends in 2005 ... well, it's fiction ... I waver on the "space baby" business which I thought after reading #2 was more a satire of the media, but which, on closer examination, is presented at least some of the time by the narrator himself ... Also, the narrator occasionally refers to his own perspective being some time later than the events narrated, placing the narration closer to the time of Near Water ... Of course Hood could not have seen 9/11 coming, and one has to applaud his optimism in imagining the U.S. electing a woman President (and not treating the character as a joke, a foil for gender stereotypes, etc.), but the end result, as read in the 2020s, is a curious failure.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another unimpressive offering from Hugh Hood.

I found myself unable to complete a number of his rambling, unnecessary paragraphs of prose. Furthermore, the plot of his story is rather ridiculous and while I will admit I found some sections of his novel enjoyable (particularly the section about the death of the protagonist's brother Anthony) for the most part I was unable to look past the author's questionable rendering of the future that was 2004.

If I wasn't forced to read a handful of Hugh Hood novels for a Canadian literature class I am currently enrolled in, I would gladly never again pick up any of his work again.

[Gerard · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favourite of the series the first time I read it and so it remains. Great Bloviations is more like it. A few stories get tied up but that's about the only appeal here, I'm afraid. As in The Scenic Art he dramatizes tremendously undramatic material undramatically.