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Milltown
Sri Lankan refugee, Sam Selvadurai, fleeing the genocide in his homeland, settles in Milltown, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario; he buys an old hamburger shop and turns it into a gourmet South Asian restaurant, while the town folk eye him with suspicion . The restaurant and most of Milltown are owned by the unscrupulous but charismatic Art Hamilton whose wife committed suicide, while his troubled teenage son, Andy, languishes in a young offenders’ prison on the border of town after having emptied a shotgun in the schoolyard, killing two students.
Frank Morgan, the town’s mayor, is on the take, pushing an amendment through council to expand the local chemical plant – for the benefit of key investor Art Hamilton. Frank lusts after his assistant, Sue Miller, whose husband died at Art’s plant and who has her own plan for revenge. Sue is forlornly attracted to the town’s drunken lawyer and failed politician, Rick Jones.
When Sam’s teenage daughter, Sarojini, and Sue’s son, Billy, fall in love, and Andy bursts out of prison, the town erupts in violence and disarray. The forces of racial prejudice, parental neglect, sexual harassment, teen pregnancy, and corporate greed meet in a perfect storm in Milltown. The body count mounts, and the town’s inhabitants are forced to examine their own lives before casting the first stone.
As the solitary lighthouse swivels and shines its light into the nooks and crannies of Milltown, Sam asks, “Is there evil here too?”
Frank Morgan, the town’s mayor, is on the take, pushing an amendment through council to expand the local chemical plant – for the benefit of key investor Art Hamilton. Frank lusts after his assistant, Sue Miller, whose husband died at Art’s plant and who has her own plan for revenge. Sue is forlornly attracted to the town’s drunken lawyer and failed politician, Rick Jones.
When Sam’s teenage daughter, Sarojini, and Sue’s son, Billy, fall in love, and Andy bursts out of prison, the town erupts in violence and disarray. The forces of racial prejudice, parental neglect, sexual harassment, teen pregnancy, and corporate greed meet in a perfect storm in Milltown. The body count mounts, and the town’s inhabitants are forced to examine their own lives before casting the first stone.
As the solitary lighthouse swivels and shines its light into the nooks and crannies of Milltown, Sam asks, “Is there evil here too?”
225 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2019
43 people want to read
About the author
Shane Joseph
12 books300 followersShane Joseph is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers in Toronto, Canada. He began writing as a teenager living in Sri Lanka and has never stopped. Redemption in Paradise, his first novel, was published in 2004 and his first short story collection, Fringe Dwellers, in 2008. His novel, After the Flood, a dystopian epic set in the aftermath of global warming, was released in November 2009, and won the Canadian Christian Writers award for best Futuristic/Fantasy novel in 2010. His story collection, Paradise Revisited, was shortlisted for the ReLit Award. His latest novel, Victoria Unveiled, was released in the fall of 2024. His short stories and articles have appeared in several Canadian anthologies and in literary journals around the world. His blog at www.shanejoseph.com is widely syndicated.
His career stints include: stage and radio actor, pop musician, encyclopaedia salesman, lathe machine operator, airline executive, travel agency manager, vice president of a global financial services company, software services salesperson, publishing editor, project manager and management consultant.
Self-taught, with four degrees under his belt obtained through distance education, Shane is an avid traveller and has visited one country for every year of his life and lived in four of them. He fondly recalls incidents during his travels as real lessons he could never have learned in school: husky riding in Finland with no training, trekking the Inca Trail in Peru through an unending rainstorm, hitch-hiking in Australia without a map, escaping a wild elephant in Zambia, and being stranded without money in Denmark, are some of his memories.
After immigrating (twice), raising a family, building a career, and experiencing life's many highs and lows, Shane has carved out a niche in Cobourg, Ontario with his wife Sarah, where he continues to work, write, and strum his guitar.
Shane Joseph, believes in the gift of second chances. He feels that he has lived many lives in just a single lifetime, always starting from scratch with only the lessons from the past to draw upon. His novels and stories reflect the redemptive power of acceptance and forgiveness.
His career stints include: stage and radio actor, pop musician, encyclopaedia salesman, lathe machine operator, airline executive, travel agency manager, vice president of a global financial services company, software services salesperson, publishing editor, project manager and management consultant.
Self-taught, with four degrees under his belt obtained through distance education, Shane is an avid traveller and has visited one country for every year of his life and lived in four of them. He fondly recalls incidents during his travels as real lessons he could never have learned in school: husky riding in Finland with no training, trekking the Inca Trail in Peru through an unending rainstorm, hitch-hiking in Australia without a map, escaping a wild elephant in Zambia, and being stranded without money in Denmark, are some of his memories.
After immigrating (twice), raising a family, building a career, and experiencing life's many highs and lows, Shane has carved out a niche in Cobourg, Ontario with his wife Sarah, where he continues to work, write, and strum his guitar.
Shane Joseph, believes in the gift of second chances. He feels that he has lived many lives in just a single lifetime, always starting from scratch with only the lessons from the past to draw upon. His novels and stories reflect the redemptive power of acceptance and forgiveness.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 27, 2025
Wow there is a lot of action and intertwined lives going on in this fast-moving book by Shane Joseph.
The setting is a small town near Toronto where a Sri Lankan immigrant family has left the ethnic violence of their homeland behind in Colombo, Sri Lanka and moved to Canada to start a restaurant. I like that the immigrant family is not portrayed as stereotypical hard-working in-love-with Canada types.
Instead, the teenage daughter, unknown to her parents, is promiscuous – sneaking out for an hour on restaurant breaks. Eventually she becomes pregnant by a lower middle-class Canadian boy. What to do with the baby? “Why have you not progressed?” [She asks him.] “With all that this country has to offer, you should have been well-off by now—at least, that is what my father says.”
On the other hand, the teenage son, with his mother’s urging, is learning about his old culture and Buddhist religion, while his father wants him to study Canadian history.
The immigrant family gets the sharp stick from both ends: the Canadian real estate firm that holds the restaurant lease is trying to force the restaurant to move from a good location to a side street. Meanwhile thugs from his own homeland regularly appear wanting 10% of his take and threatening his family.
There is a greedy, evil type – a factory owner who exports to the USA a pesticide illegal for sale in Canada. It’s a tricky business requiring sleazy lawyers and accountants. Fortunately female ones can be found so the factory owner can bed them down as well.
Just how sleazy is this guy? He’s more or less responsible for his wife’s suicide, and his childhood neglect of his son is probably behind his son being in jail for murdering his girlfriend. The son escapes prison during a transfer. He kills four more people (count ‘em) and takes the pregnant Tamil woman and her boyfriend hostage.
Here’s a passage I picked out to illustrate the writing style:
“He was waiting for her past midnight when she hurried up the hill after her shift to his darkened house, which was illuminated only by a dim light in the living room, throwing his shadow picking at his guitar upon the drawn curtains. The dogs barked in the back yard somewhere as she pushed through the creaking, rusty gate.
The porch light went on, and he stood in the doorway, the black shirt further unbuttoned; the hair on his lower body was darker. He made no excuse to cover his semi nakedness but waved her in unselfconsciously.
She entered the musty house; books in piles lined the corridor leading into the living room. Faded blue curtains shrouded the windows and newspapers and magazines were strewn over the scratched hardwood floor. She moved a pile of papers and sat down on the worn leather sofa, its springs complaining under her.”
Dirty politics and corporate sleaze abound. A good fast-paced read.
I thank the author, Shane Joseph, for sending me a copy of the book to review. Shane Joseph is one of my favorite authors and I have read several of his novels and a collection of short stories. Below are links to my reviews of other books of his:
Victoria Unveiled
Empire in the Sand
Circles in the Spiral
Crossing Limbo (short stories)
Top photo: Merrickville, Ontario from shawglobalnews.wordpress.com
Bottom photo: Old Colombo, Sri Lanka, from tripsavvy.com
The setting is a small town near Toronto where a Sri Lankan immigrant family has left the ethnic violence of their homeland behind in Colombo, Sri Lanka and moved to Canada to start a restaurant. I like that the immigrant family is not portrayed as stereotypical hard-working in-love-with Canada types.
Instead, the teenage daughter, unknown to her parents, is promiscuous – sneaking out for an hour on restaurant breaks. Eventually she becomes pregnant by a lower middle-class Canadian boy. What to do with the baby? “Why have you not progressed?” [She asks him.] “With all that this country has to offer, you should have been well-off by now—at least, that is what my father says.”
On the other hand, the teenage son, with his mother’s urging, is learning about his old culture and Buddhist religion, while his father wants him to study Canadian history.
The immigrant family gets the sharp stick from both ends: the Canadian real estate firm that holds the restaurant lease is trying to force the restaurant to move from a good location to a side street. Meanwhile thugs from his own homeland regularly appear wanting 10% of his take and threatening his family.
There is a greedy, evil type – a factory owner who exports to the USA a pesticide illegal for sale in Canada. It’s a tricky business requiring sleazy lawyers and accountants. Fortunately female ones can be found so the factory owner can bed them down as well.
Just how sleazy is this guy? He’s more or less responsible for his wife’s suicide, and his childhood neglect of his son is probably behind his son being in jail for murdering his girlfriend. The son escapes prison during a transfer. He kills four more people (count ‘em) and takes the pregnant Tamil woman and her boyfriend hostage.
Here’s a passage I picked out to illustrate the writing style:
“He was waiting for her past midnight when she hurried up the hill after her shift to his darkened house, which was illuminated only by a dim light in the living room, throwing his shadow picking at his guitar upon the drawn curtains. The dogs barked in the back yard somewhere as she pushed through the creaking, rusty gate.
The porch light went on, and he stood in the doorway, the black shirt further unbuttoned; the hair on his lower body was darker. He made no excuse to cover his semi nakedness but waved her in unselfconsciously.
She entered the musty house; books in piles lined the corridor leading into the living room. Faded blue curtains shrouded the windows and newspapers and magazines were strewn over the scratched hardwood floor. She moved a pile of papers and sat down on the worn leather sofa, its springs complaining under her.”
Dirty politics and corporate sleaze abound. A good fast-paced read.
I thank the author, Shane Joseph, for sending me a copy of the book to review. Shane Joseph is one of my favorite authors and I have read several of his novels and a collection of short stories. Below are links to my reviews of other books of his:
Victoria Unveiled
Empire in the Sand
Circles in the Spiral
Crossing Limbo (short stories)
Top photo: Merrickville, Ontario from shawglobalnews.wordpress.com
Bottom photo: Old Colombo, Sri Lanka, from tripsavvy.com
March 3, 2019
Milltown is a story which combines aspects of cultural diversity and a good story to make an engrossing read. There is a subtle undercurrent of racism & prejudice which the book tackles very well.
Sam Selvadurai is a fairly recent immigrant to Canada, escaping violence in his country of birth – Sri Lanka (he is a Tamil while his wife is Sinhalese). He and his family (wife Malani, daughter Sarojini and son Mahesh) settle down in Milltown and open a South Asian restaurant, which they hope will do well. It isn’t easy in the midst of greed, corruption, prejudice and contacts from the past continuing to pursue and harass them.
A powerful lobby calls the shots in Milltown – primarily Mayor Frank Morgan, and Art Hamilton who is the key investor. Art has an interest in getting Sam to move from the place. Sue feels stuck in her job as Frank’s assistant but with a young son Billy who she hopes will go to college and make a good career, she has few options and feels weak against Frank’s advances. Sue looks to Rick Jones, who stood for election against Frank and lost, to help her. Billy and Sam’s daughter Sarojini fall in love, and matters soon get out of control. Events take a violent turn when Art’s troubled son Andy escapes the facility he is in and enters Milltown.
The author’s in depth understanding of Sri Lankan cultural and events allows him to weave an entirely authentic cultural background for the characters. As the story developed, I liked many of the characters – their values and motivation (Sam & his family, Billy and Rick). Sam’s struggle to fit in and succeed - by working hard, being broad minded & respectful of the new culture is very well narrated. An area the book could have done better - there could have been a richer dialogue between the characters exploring the intermingling of different cultural backgrounds even more.
The book alludes to the violence Sam escapes, but prefers to leave a lot unsaid – this was not difficult for me as I have a good understanding of the events in Sri Lanka, but this background might be a little on the shorter side for those who are not aware of this (all of this is public information and easily accessible though).
A book I recommend you read for its good story, strong characters and mature interweaving of different cultural backgrounds.
I received a free eBook from the author for an honest review.
Sam Selvadurai is a fairly recent immigrant to Canada, escaping violence in his country of birth – Sri Lanka (he is a Tamil while his wife is Sinhalese). He and his family (wife Malani, daughter Sarojini and son Mahesh) settle down in Milltown and open a South Asian restaurant, which they hope will do well. It isn’t easy in the midst of greed, corruption, prejudice and contacts from the past continuing to pursue and harass them.
A powerful lobby calls the shots in Milltown – primarily Mayor Frank Morgan, and Art Hamilton who is the key investor. Art has an interest in getting Sam to move from the place. Sue feels stuck in her job as Frank’s assistant but with a young son Billy who she hopes will go to college and make a good career, she has few options and feels weak against Frank’s advances. Sue looks to Rick Jones, who stood for election against Frank and lost, to help her. Billy and Sam’s daughter Sarojini fall in love, and matters soon get out of control. Events take a violent turn when Art’s troubled son Andy escapes the facility he is in and enters Milltown.
The author’s in depth understanding of Sri Lankan cultural and events allows him to weave an entirely authentic cultural background for the characters. As the story developed, I liked many of the characters – their values and motivation (Sam & his family, Billy and Rick). Sam’s struggle to fit in and succeed - by working hard, being broad minded & respectful of the new culture is very well narrated. An area the book could have done better - there could have been a richer dialogue between the characters exploring the intermingling of different cultural backgrounds even more.
The book alludes to the violence Sam escapes, but prefers to leave a lot unsaid – this was not difficult for me as I have a good understanding of the events in Sri Lanka, but this background might be a little on the shorter side for those who are not aware of this (all of this is public information and easily accessible though).
A book I recommend you read for its good story, strong characters and mature interweaving of different cultural backgrounds.
I received a free eBook from the author for an honest review.
March 9, 2019
Born of European stock in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, Goodreads author Shane Joseph immigrated, as an adult, to Canada, like a large number of his countrymen (many of them escaping from their country's devastating 26-year-long ethnic civil war with its attendant horrors). He's a masterful writer of serious descriptive fiction --that is, fiction that's well-crafted and appealing to general readers who like good fiction, while incorporating themes that make the reader think about significant philosophical, psychological and social concerns-- in both novel and short story format. His work can be set in either his native or his adopted country, and he can evoke both settings vividly and with assurance. Though written about 10 years ago (long story!), this novel is his most recent publication, and makes use of both sides of his background, as he explores both the contemporary Sri Lankan immigrant experience in Canada and the lives of native Canadians in a small town (or large town/small city --pop. ca. 20,000). He and I are Goodreads friends; when he offered to send me a free PDF as a review book (I couldn't guarantee that I'd like it, but he knew I'd liked the three of his books I'd already read) I agreed immediately, and I'm glad I did!
As I recall, the text of the novel doesn't actually say where in Canada the fictitious locale Milltown is; but the proximity of Toronto and Niagara Falls suggests southeastern Ontario, and the lake often mentioned in the book would be Lake Ontario. The Goodreads description makes the latter identification explicit; but I don't really recommend reading the description, since it introduces quite a few characters, with their relationships and motivations. In the constricted space of a paragraph or two, that list can seem daunting, whereas it's not that way at all if you encounter them naturally in the book; and most readers will prefer to pick up the relationships and motives for themselves as part of the unfolding story. It's sufficient to say that Sam, our main character, is a Tamil chef (and a Hindu who's lost his faith), who's brought his Sinhalese Buddhist wife --and yes, in Sri Lanka that ethnic/religious difference is a BIG deal-- and their two teenage kids to Milltown from Toronto to open a restaurant serving Sri Lankan cuisine. These four will cross the paths of several Milltown natives in significant ways, and these latter people will also interact with each other in a mosaic of conflicting or complementary aims, needs and desires.
The author delivers the characteristic lifelike, three-dimensional characterizations, deft realization of setting, appreciation of the beauty of the natural world, sensitivity to multicultural and cross-cultural issues, understanding of the fundamental moral questions of life and the significance of good and evil, and awareness of significant social issues (and the social issues in Canada aren't greatly different from those in the U.S.) here that his fans have come to expect. As a Sri Lankan immigrant himself, he writes about what he knows in dealing with the psychology of trying to start a new life in an unfamiliar place, the reality of ugly xenophobic prejudice in some quarters (and --something I wasn't aware of at all before reading this novel-- the victimization of Sri Lankan immigrants by thug elements in their own community who used the civil war as a pretext for bullying and extortion). He also casts a searching eye --like the symbolic beam of the lighthouse in the novel-- on political corruption, sexual harassment, corporate greed and irresponsibility, school shootings, and the challenge of teenage pregnancy. That's a lot to tackle, but all of these issues grow naturally from the storyline, and none of them have a tacked-on feel.
Criminal behavior and violence (a good deal of the latter, some of it graphic) takes place here; but I've classified the novel as general fiction, not crime fiction or action adventure. That's because the characters are ordinary people, dealing with problems and challenges that can occur in ordinary life; they're not (with the exception of a couple minor characters) professional criminals nor detectives, and the focus of the tale isn't on derring-do and gun battles. Shane warned me before I accepted the book that it has some bad language, and it does, including a lot of use by some characters of the f-word (though not all of them talk that way). IMO, this actually does reflect the way these people, as uncritical products of a coarsened culture, would speak. For me, some of the sexual content was more problematical than the language; some of the males here have the sexual attitudes and practices of rutting hogs, and we have more reference (some of it explicit enough to be cringe-worthy) to sexual activity or actions than I would have introduced myself if I'd been writing this. But it's important to recognize that the author's moral vision is positive, optimistic towards human moral possibilities, and life-affirming; light shines in the dark background.
One major plot point struck me as handled unrealistically; unlike a dog's muzzle, I don't believe a human mouth could be positioned to inflict a bite in the particular area it does here, especially through at least two layers of cloth, one of them fairly coarse and thick, to inflict the level of damage it does or to immobilize an armed victim that effectively, and I also don't believe that every motorist on a busy highway (many of whom would have cell phones) would be that oblivious or indifferent to obviously untoward events taking place on the road shoulder. The same result, in terms of the plot, could have been achieved more realistically with different handling. Personally, I also felt that we weren't taken into Saro's head enough to understand why she makes one key decision she does --we have to figure that out for ourselves, though I was able to come up with a theory that makes good sense to me. I deducted half a star for these factors, though I rounded up. (Also, readers very sensitive to cruelty to animals should be warned that one scene here might be a "trigger.") However, those are relatively minor quibbles that don't change the fact that this was a very rewarding read. A short while ago, I elevated Shane into my "favorite authors" list; and I'll definitely be buying a paper copy of the book!
As I recall, the text of the novel doesn't actually say where in Canada the fictitious locale Milltown is; but the proximity of Toronto and Niagara Falls suggests southeastern Ontario, and the lake often mentioned in the book would be Lake Ontario. The Goodreads description makes the latter identification explicit; but I don't really recommend reading the description, since it introduces quite a few characters, with their relationships and motivations. In the constricted space of a paragraph or two, that list can seem daunting, whereas it's not that way at all if you encounter them naturally in the book; and most readers will prefer to pick up the relationships and motives for themselves as part of the unfolding story. It's sufficient to say that Sam, our main character, is a Tamil chef (and a Hindu who's lost his faith), who's brought his Sinhalese Buddhist wife --and yes, in Sri Lanka that ethnic/religious difference is a BIG deal-- and their two teenage kids to Milltown from Toronto to open a restaurant serving Sri Lankan cuisine. These four will cross the paths of several Milltown natives in significant ways, and these latter people will also interact with each other in a mosaic of conflicting or complementary aims, needs and desires.
The author delivers the characteristic lifelike, three-dimensional characterizations, deft realization of setting, appreciation of the beauty of the natural world, sensitivity to multicultural and cross-cultural issues, understanding of the fundamental moral questions of life and the significance of good and evil, and awareness of significant social issues (and the social issues in Canada aren't greatly different from those in the U.S.) here that his fans have come to expect. As a Sri Lankan immigrant himself, he writes about what he knows in dealing with the psychology of trying to start a new life in an unfamiliar place, the reality of ugly xenophobic prejudice in some quarters (and --something I wasn't aware of at all before reading this novel-- the victimization of Sri Lankan immigrants by thug elements in their own community who used the civil war as a pretext for bullying and extortion). He also casts a searching eye --like the symbolic beam of the lighthouse in the novel-- on political corruption, sexual harassment, corporate greed and irresponsibility, school shootings, and the challenge of teenage pregnancy. That's a lot to tackle, but all of these issues grow naturally from the storyline, and none of them have a tacked-on feel.
Criminal behavior and violence (a good deal of the latter, some of it graphic) takes place here; but I've classified the novel as general fiction, not crime fiction or action adventure. That's because the characters are ordinary people, dealing with problems and challenges that can occur in ordinary life; they're not (with the exception of a couple minor characters) professional criminals nor detectives, and the focus of the tale isn't on derring-do and gun battles. Shane warned me before I accepted the book that it has some bad language, and it does, including a lot of use by some characters of the f-word (though not all of them talk that way). IMO, this actually does reflect the way these people, as uncritical products of a coarsened culture, would speak. For me, some of the sexual content was more problematical than the language; some of the males here have the sexual attitudes and practices of rutting hogs, and we have more reference (some of it explicit enough to be cringe-worthy) to sexual activity or actions than I would have introduced myself if I'd been writing this. But it's important to recognize that the author's moral vision is positive, optimistic towards human moral possibilities, and life-affirming; light shines in the dark background.
One major plot point struck me as handled unrealistically; unlike a dog's muzzle, I don't believe a human mouth could be positioned to inflict a bite in the particular area it does here, especially through at least two layers of cloth, one of them fairly coarse and thick, to inflict the level of damage it does or to immobilize an armed victim that effectively, and I also don't believe that every motorist on a busy highway (many of whom would have cell phones) would be that oblivious or indifferent to obviously untoward events taking place on the road shoulder. The same result, in terms of the plot, could have been achieved more realistically with different handling. Personally, I also felt that we weren't taken into Saro's head enough to understand why she makes one key decision she does --we have to figure that out for ourselves, though I was able to come up with a theory that makes good sense to me. I deducted half a star for these factors, though I rounded up. (Also, readers very sensitive to cruelty to animals should be warned that one scene here might be a "trigger.") However, those are relatively minor quibbles that don't change the fact that this was a very rewarding read. A short while ago, I elevated Shane into my "favorite authors" list; and I'll definitely be buying a paper copy of the book!
February 21, 2019
Small-town Canada proves to be just as messed up as anywhere in North America.
This mainstream novel really focuses on the trials and tribulations of being an outsider... in this case, a Sri Lankan family of refugees making a home and a restaurant in Milltown.
Add shootings, corruption, young love, pregnancy, and a wide cast of characters. It's pretty good. It's very mainstream and we get to know everyone very well. Some we learn to love, some we learn to hate, and isn't that always the way it is in stories of small towns?
I enjoyed myself. It's not really the usual kind of fare I read, but I've read quite a few like this... usually within masters of the craft and classic novels, but this one stands very well on its own. :)
This mainstream novel really focuses on the trials and tribulations of being an outsider... in this case, a Sri Lankan family of refugees making a home and a restaurant in Milltown.
Add shootings, corruption, young love, pregnancy, and a wide cast of characters. It's pretty good. It's very mainstream and we get to know everyone very well. Some we learn to love, some we learn to hate, and isn't that always the way it is in stories of small towns?
I enjoyed myself. It's not really the usual kind of fare I read, but I've read quite a few like this... usually within masters of the craft and classic novels, but this one stands very well on its own. :)
December 7, 2019
I cannot rid myself of the notion that there is a Tarantino-esque quality to this novel that redefines everything I ever imagined I would be reading when picking up Milltown.
I imagined the setting of every small town Ontario I've ever known; I imagined immigrants struggling with adjustment to a new country; I imagined small town politics and corruption; I imagined something far less seedy, and far less sleazy; and frankly, I imagined something far less demented than I encountered. All that to say: Shane Joseph has a powerful imagination that could give Tarantino a run for his money if he ever submitted this as a movie script.
Let me be clear: I love Tarantino in all his iterations. This is not a slight, but rather a significant endorsement on my part.
At the same time, I will admit to, at times, being rather confused by the novel itself -- because one doesn't know which tail to grasp, really, when pursuing a story line; there is too much here for the mind to grapple with, too many disparate threads that don't work well enough.
We are pulled into a (Sri Lankan) immigrant family's continuing odyssey: from Sri Lanka, to Big City Canada, to Small Town Ontario: an odyssey, which in itself is worthy of its own novel, so big is that question. Concomitant with that, the family is harassed from within its own community, wherein corruption is endemic. Such a big topic to address.
In order to escape the harassment, Sam Salvadurai (the patriarch of the family) decides to move his family from Toronto -- to what is essentially Cobourg, Ontario. I could have told Sam that wasn't such a bright move since that kind of geographical dislocation is hardly a relocation at all. To the small town Ontarian, this relocation is equivalent to moving between neighbourhoods in big cities like Toronto, or Montréal. Go to Vancouver, or Tuktoyaktuk, for goodness sake, but don't move around the corner from where people are looking for you!
But I get it. I do. The Toronto address is just a backdrop and a reason for Joseph to set scene: he wants us to get intimate with small towns in Ontario, and how they work, and what to expect when you get there, whether you're an immigrant or a dyed-in-the-Canadian-wool original. With appreciation, I note that he's pretty well "spot on" about STO. (Let this be my abbreviation for Small Town Ontario, hereinafter.) He's got the moves, he's got the people, he's even got the lingo, for the most part. (Although I find his language is sometimes too polite, too correct. Every once in a while, the mind has a hiccup and says, nope, that's not right. ... But that's only a minor quibble.)
He understands what it's like to be an immigrant in STO. Admittedly, he "is" an immigrant to STO -- but much more than that he is able to relay his experience to make us feel the experience, the way many cannot. There are some very tender, moving moments where your throat catches, and you pause, saying, Yes, I understand. I've seen that with my own eyes, and now I understand more. It makes the heart ache.
The small town political corruption I'm all-too-familiar with, and that was handled rather middle-of-the-road, as these individuals unfortunately emerged as caricatures of evil and nastiness, rather than the real thing.
The surprise in all this was the brutality and violence that emerged from STO and this is where I'm not sure if Joseph is saying small towns breed this kind of violence; or this is the shape of our society today and it touches 'even' the small town. Hmmm. It's one to ponder still. There was so much of it, in such a short space, and so graphic, and so intense that, here too, the throat catches -- but in a most unpleasant way.
And that's where even more pondering comes in: there's no doubt in my mind that Joseph is a good writer; and no doubt at all that he has stories unfathomable to tell, and that they are all fascinating. My view is: they don't all have to be in the same novel, because each one, to do it justice, requires volumes of words on its own.
In a novel, I'm the kind of reader that needs more flesh on the characters; I need to explore motivations from every angle and I need to be offered solutions, or resistance -- but I need the painting to be more than just a sketch.
All that being said, the novel "does" work in a general, mainstream fiction kind-of-way. If you picked this up at an airport, you would fly to your next destination, no pun intended, as the hours would melt away rather quickly in this fast-paced, incident-to-incident novel.
I would like to see Joseph concentrate his not-inconsiderable storytelling skills into more compact offerings, and not dilute the stories with roughed-in characters. I believe he has so many good stories, and so many ideas that they all crowd around him, no doubt shouting to be heard, because it is obvious to me that there is much talent here, and much compassionate humanity.
I was given an Advanced Readers' Copy in PDF, in January 2019, in exchange for an honest review. While Shane Joseph and I have been Goodreads Friends for some time, that has in no way coloured my impressions of this novel. I only apologize that it has taken me so long to review it.
I imagined the setting of every small town Ontario I've ever known; I imagined immigrants struggling with adjustment to a new country; I imagined small town politics and corruption; I imagined something far less seedy, and far less sleazy; and frankly, I imagined something far less demented than I encountered. All that to say: Shane Joseph has a powerful imagination that could give Tarantino a run for his money if he ever submitted this as a movie script.
Let me be clear: I love Tarantino in all his iterations. This is not a slight, but rather a significant endorsement on my part.
At the same time, I will admit to, at times, being rather confused by the novel itself -- because one doesn't know which tail to grasp, really, when pursuing a story line; there is too much here for the mind to grapple with, too many disparate threads that don't work well enough.
We are pulled into a (Sri Lankan) immigrant family's continuing odyssey: from Sri Lanka, to Big City Canada, to Small Town Ontario: an odyssey, which in itself is worthy of its own novel, so big is that question. Concomitant with that, the family is harassed from within its own community, wherein corruption is endemic. Such a big topic to address.
In order to escape the harassment, Sam Salvadurai (the patriarch of the family) decides to move his family from Toronto -- to what is essentially Cobourg, Ontario. I could have told Sam that wasn't such a bright move since that kind of geographical dislocation is hardly a relocation at all. To the small town Ontarian, this relocation is equivalent to moving between neighbourhoods in big cities like Toronto, or Montréal. Go to Vancouver, or Tuktoyaktuk, for goodness sake, but don't move around the corner from where people are looking for you!
But I get it. I do. The Toronto address is just a backdrop and a reason for Joseph to set scene: he wants us to get intimate with small towns in Ontario, and how they work, and what to expect when you get there, whether you're an immigrant or a dyed-in-the-Canadian-wool original. With appreciation, I note that he's pretty well "spot on" about STO. (Let this be my abbreviation for Small Town Ontario, hereinafter.) He's got the moves, he's got the people, he's even got the lingo, for the most part. (Although I find his language is sometimes too polite, too correct. Every once in a while, the mind has a hiccup and says, nope, that's not right. ... But that's only a minor quibble.)
He understands what it's like to be an immigrant in STO. Admittedly, he "is" an immigrant to STO -- but much more than that he is able to relay his experience to make us feel the experience, the way many cannot. There are some very tender, moving moments where your throat catches, and you pause, saying, Yes, I understand. I've seen that with my own eyes, and now I understand more. It makes the heart ache.
The small town political corruption I'm all-too-familiar with, and that was handled rather middle-of-the-road, as these individuals unfortunately emerged as caricatures of evil and nastiness, rather than the real thing.
The surprise in all this was the brutality and violence that emerged from STO and this is where I'm not sure if Joseph is saying small towns breed this kind of violence; or this is the shape of our society today and it touches 'even' the small town. Hmmm. It's one to ponder still. There was so much of it, in such a short space, and so graphic, and so intense that, here too, the throat catches -- but in a most unpleasant way.
And that's where even more pondering comes in: there's no doubt in my mind that Joseph is a good writer; and no doubt at all that he has stories unfathomable to tell, and that they are all fascinating. My view is: they don't all have to be in the same novel, because each one, to do it justice, requires volumes of words on its own.
In a novel, I'm the kind of reader that needs more flesh on the characters; I need to explore motivations from every angle and I need to be offered solutions, or resistance -- but I need the painting to be more than just a sketch.
All that being said, the novel "does" work in a general, mainstream fiction kind-of-way. If you picked this up at an airport, you would fly to your next destination, no pun intended, as the hours would melt away rather quickly in this fast-paced, incident-to-incident novel.
I would like to see Joseph concentrate his not-inconsiderable storytelling skills into more compact offerings, and not dilute the stories with roughed-in characters. I believe he has so many good stories, and so many ideas that they all crowd around him, no doubt shouting to be heard, because it is obvious to me that there is much talent here, and much compassionate humanity.
I was given an Advanced Readers' Copy in PDF, in January 2019, in exchange for an honest review. While Shane Joseph and I have been Goodreads Friends for some time, that has in no way coloured my impressions of this novel. I only apologize that it has taken me so long to review it.
February 5, 2019
Milltown:
How Sri Lankan immigrants make it in Canada
A review by Ben Antao
Sri Lankan-born Shane Joseph, now a Canadian citizen, has written a mainstream Canadian novel titled Milltown that takes the reader on a virtual merry-go-round of crooked industrialists, abusive politicians, unwanted pregnancies, psychopathic killers, drunken lawyers, Sri Lankan immigrants and inept mobsters --- indeed a roundabout of sex, violence and crime that one normally associates with city and urban living, but not in a small town like Port Hope or Cobourg in Ontario. Here the novel’s action seeks to imitate the urban brother as if to say, “Anything you can do, I can do better.”
The author has chosen the cast of characters with the singular aim of entertaining the reader.
There is a Sri Lankan family of four --- a couple with two teenaged children recently relocated from Toronto, the rapacious big wolf. Their last name is Selvadurai, which reminded me of another Sri Lankan writer named Shyam Selvadurai, whose first novel, Funny Boy (1994), won the Books in Canada first novel award. I guess the author’s intention in fictionalising this surname is to attract more Canadian readers to his novel possibly through the word of mouth. The Selvadurais run a family restaurant aptly named South Asian Delights in Milltown, pop 20,000, nearby Lake Ontario with a tall town hall in the downtown core.
Art Hamilton, who owns half of Milltown, is an industrialist whose chemical plant aims to produce organophosphates used in insecticides for sale to the U.S. For this deal he needs the services of Jane Garner, a chartered accountant whose office is next door to South Asian Delights on Main Street. Art is a widower whose wife committed suicide.. He has a teenaged son Andy with mental health issues. He had built his empire after inheriting an old flour mill ---hence the town’s name --- from his parents. Jane is an attractive brunette in her late thirties, divorced, and currently in a custody fight for her son.
Frank Morgan, the mayor who seeks re-election, is concerned that too many foreigners are flooding his little town. Art, however, thinks that diversity is good. He tells the mayor, “Milltown could be the next Oakville if we plan it right. We need art galleries, high-end boutiques, exotic restaurants.”
Enter another character named Rick Jones, a sometimes sailor, who has a fondness for the bottle, and brother-in-law of Art Hamilton. Jones plans to run again against Morgan.
Then there is Sue Miller, the mayor’s secretary, whose husband had died of cancer apparently caused by fumes from the chemical plant owned by Art. She has a teenaged son, Billy, who develops a relationship with Sarojini Selvadurai, the daughter of Sam and Malani who own the restaurant.
The author’s clear eye for description, his sound ear for dialogue, and his spicy taste for vadais, samosas and curried chicken ---these three senses serve him well in narrating this fictional story of ambition driving evil doings, of lust embedded in power and corruption, of adolescent desire and longing leading to pregnancy, of new immigrants struggling to make it in a Canadian culture. In this respect, Shane Joseph’s literary gifts for story telling appeared to be similar to those of the American writers, namely, Philip Roth, John Updike and Richard Ford, all of whom also deal with the pursuit of the American dream, its highs and lows and in-betweens.
To weave the four plot threads into a supple sweater of variegated colours representing the diversity of the first decade of 21st century Canada, the author prudently employs multiple points of view (POVs) to get the theme across and set up the action with a brisk pace to engage the reader.
This is how the novel opens:
Sam Selvadurai walked the deserted boardwalk, looking out on the lake and across to the lighthouse, and asked that imposing beacon whether he had come to the right place…He could smell the freedom in this country; he inhaled deeply, letting the cold creep inside him, refreshing, numbing, ridding his doubts about coming to live in a small town where his foreignness stuck out like that lighthouse at the end of the pier. Out here he would lose the anonymity of Toronto, where he had been classified as another “ethnic.”
Art’s conflict with Rick Jones, the lawyer, is set up like this:
Art Hamilton’s face flushed a deep red. “You’ve overstayed your welcome, Rick. Now that you’ve had your drink, why don’t you leave? And let me give you a piece of advice—advice you have never taken in your catastrophic political career. We don’t like confrontation in this town—anywhere, for that matter. If you were less combative and insulting, you might make a better politician.”
Rick tossed a crumpled note on the counter and made for the door. “And be a ‘yes man’ to big business, Art? Like your gopher, Frank, here? Dream on, buddy.”
One evening Billy, 18, takes Sarojini, 17, for a spin in his mother’s car. They go to the old mill now abandoned.
Saro shook her hair loose from her scarf and began to relax. “Thank you for bringing me out. I have been here almost three months and have only been inside the town limits.”
“Your dad does not take you for drives?”
“All my family does is work. We are immigrants, remember? The ones at the bottom of the pile.” There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. “My mother said that when she was my age in Sri Lanka, her family had maids, a gardener, and a driver to attend to their needs.”
“If it’s any consolation to you, I am at the bottom of the pile, too. And I am home-grown.”
“Why have you not progressed?” She seemed genuinely puzzled.
“With all that this country has to offer, you should have been well-off by now—at least, that is what my father says.”
“We were ‘well-off’ until my father died of cancer. He did not believe in life insurance, and by the time he was diagnosed it was too late to get any. We had just bought a big house in a subdivision in town. Mom could not meet the mortgage payments, so we lost the house. It’s the usual hard-luck Canadian story.”
Although married, Frank has the hots for his secretary Sue. After his re-election victory party, he drives Sue home with sex on his mind. On being told that he can always hire another secretary if she does not cooperate, Sue relents.
“You’d better make it quick before Billy gets home,” she said lying back on the kitchen table, between the plates and the cutlery and hoisting up her skirt.”
As the story progresses, relations between father and son (Art and Andy) turn for the worse leading to a mad police chase, with car crashes and murder. Andy winds up at the old mill where he confronts Billy whose mind swirls in windmills over what to do with a pregnant Sarojini.
To know how this climax is resolved, you have to read the novel. I recommend that you do. You won’t be disappointed.
(Ben Antao, born in Goa, is a journalist, novelist and short story writer living in Toronto. His latest novel Money and Politics (2015) deals with post-Liberation events in Goa.)
---
How Sri Lankan immigrants make it in Canada
A review by Ben Antao
Sri Lankan-born Shane Joseph, now a Canadian citizen, has written a mainstream Canadian novel titled Milltown that takes the reader on a virtual merry-go-round of crooked industrialists, abusive politicians, unwanted pregnancies, psychopathic killers, drunken lawyers, Sri Lankan immigrants and inept mobsters --- indeed a roundabout of sex, violence and crime that one normally associates with city and urban living, but not in a small town like Port Hope or Cobourg in Ontario. Here the novel’s action seeks to imitate the urban brother as if to say, “Anything you can do, I can do better.”
The author has chosen the cast of characters with the singular aim of entertaining the reader.
There is a Sri Lankan family of four --- a couple with two teenaged children recently relocated from Toronto, the rapacious big wolf. Their last name is Selvadurai, which reminded me of another Sri Lankan writer named Shyam Selvadurai, whose first novel, Funny Boy (1994), won the Books in Canada first novel award. I guess the author’s intention in fictionalising this surname is to attract more Canadian readers to his novel possibly through the word of mouth. The Selvadurais run a family restaurant aptly named South Asian Delights in Milltown, pop 20,000, nearby Lake Ontario with a tall town hall in the downtown core.
Art Hamilton, who owns half of Milltown, is an industrialist whose chemical plant aims to produce organophosphates used in insecticides for sale to the U.S. For this deal he needs the services of Jane Garner, a chartered accountant whose office is next door to South Asian Delights on Main Street. Art is a widower whose wife committed suicide.. He has a teenaged son Andy with mental health issues. He had built his empire after inheriting an old flour mill ---hence the town’s name --- from his parents. Jane is an attractive brunette in her late thirties, divorced, and currently in a custody fight for her son.
Frank Morgan, the mayor who seeks re-election, is concerned that too many foreigners are flooding his little town. Art, however, thinks that diversity is good. He tells the mayor, “Milltown could be the next Oakville if we plan it right. We need art galleries, high-end boutiques, exotic restaurants.”
Enter another character named Rick Jones, a sometimes sailor, who has a fondness for the bottle, and brother-in-law of Art Hamilton. Jones plans to run again against Morgan.
Then there is Sue Miller, the mayor’s secretary, whose husband had died of cancer apparently caused by fumes from the chemical plant owned by Art. She has a teenaged son, Billy, who develops a relationship with Sarojini Selvadurai, the daughter of Sam and Malani who own the restaurant.
The author’s clear eye for description, his sound ear for dialogue, and his spicy taste for vadais, samosas and curried chicken ---these three senses serve him well in narrating this fictional story of ambition driving evil doings, of lust embedded in power and corruption, of adolescent desire and longing leading to pregnancy, of new immigrants struggling to make it in a Canadian culture. In this respect, Shane Joseph’s literary gifts for story telling appeared to be similar to those of the American writers, namely, Philip Roth, John Updike and Richard Ford, all of whom also deal with the pursuit of the American dream, its highs and lows and in-betweens.
To weave the four plot threads into a supple sweater of variegated colours representing the diversity of the first decade of 21st century Canada, the author prudently employs multiple points of view (POVs) to get the theme across and set up the action with a brisk pace to engage the reader.
This is how the novel opens:
Sam Selvadurai walked the deserted boardwalk, looking out on the lake and across to the lighthouse, and asked that imposing beacon whether he had come to the right place…He could smell the freedom in this country; he inhaled deeply, letting the cold creep inside him, refreshing, numbing, ridding his doubts about coming to live in a small town where his foreignness stuck out like that lighthouse at the end of the pier. Out here he would lose the anonymity of Toronto, where he had been classified as another “ethnic.”
Art’s conflict with Rick Jones, the lawyer, is set up like this:
Art Hamilton’s face flushed a deep red. “You’ve overstayed your welcome, Rick. Now that you’ve had your drink, why don’t you leave? And let me give you a piece of advice—advice you have never taken in your catastrophic political career. We don’t like confrontation in this town—anywhere, for that matter. If you were less combative and insulting, you might make a better politician.”
Rick tossed a crumpled note on the counter and made for the door. “And be a ‘yes man’ to big business, Art? Like your gopher, Frank, here? Dream on, buddy.”
One evening Billy, 18, takes Sarojini, 17, for a spin in his mother’s car. They go to the old mill now abandoned.
Saro shook her hair loose from her scarf and began to relax. “Thank you for bringing me out. I have been here almost three months and have only been inside the town limits.”
“Your dad does not take you for drives?”
“All my family does is work. We are immigrants, remember? The ones at the bottom of the pile.” There was a hint of bitterness in her voice. “My mother said that when she was my age in Sri Lanka, her family had maids, a gardener, and a driver to attend to their needs.”
“If it’s any consolation to you, I am at the bottom of the pile, too. And I am home-grown.”
“Why have you not progressed?” She seemed genuinely puzzled.
“With all that this country has to offer, you should have been well-off by now—at least, that is what my father says.”
“We were ‘well-off’ until my father died of cancer. He did not believe in life insurance, and by the time he was diagnosed it was too late to get any. We had just bought a big house in a subdivision in town. Mom could not meet the mortgage payments, so we lost the house. It’s the usual hard-luck Canadian story.”
Although married, Frank has the hots for his secretary Sue. After his re-election victory party, he drives Sue home with sex on his mind. On being told that he can always hire another secretary if she does not cooperate, Sue relents.
“You’d better make it quick before Billy gets home,” she said lying back on the kitchen table, between the plates and the cutlery and hoisting up her skirt.”
As the story progresses, relations between father and son (Art and Andy) turn for the worse leading to a mad police chase, with car crashes and murder. Andy winds up at the old mill where he confronts Billy whose mind swirls in windmills over what to do with a pregnant Sarojini.
To know how this climax is resolved, you have to read the novel. I recommend that you do. You won’t be disappointed.
(Ben Antao, born in Goa, is a journalist, novelist and short story writer living in Toronto. His latest novel Money and Politics (2015) deals with post-Liberation events in Goa.)
---
February 17, 2019
Shane Joseph’s latest novel takes us to Milltown on the shores of Lake Ontario – a town of 20,000 that is in transition from a blue collar community built up around the now closed flour mill to a bustling bedroom community with high end condos and luxury homes owned by wealthy out-of-towners.
But Milltown is much more than it seems. It is a boiling cauldron of greed, political corruption, simmering violence, dark secrets and racial strife. Opposing forces are battling for control – unscrupulous businessman Art Hamilton who owns half the town including the chemical plant and has mayor Fran Morgan firmly in his pocket, and his nemesis lawyer Rick Jones who tries to expose the dark underbelly of Milltown while battling his own demons.
Caught in the middle are: Sri Lanka refugee Sam Selvadurai who is trying to build a new life in Canada for his wife and daughter with his restaurant South Asian Delights; widow Sue Miller and her son Billy; and corporate accountant Jane Garner who is attempting to reinvent herself as a divorced mom fighting for custody of her son Jeremy.
“Milltown” builds to a startling climax with a catastrophic accident and an explosion of violence with Art’s troubled son Andy as the catalyst. You may think I have revealed too much. But trust me, I have only scratched the surface of all that takes place.
You will rarely find a novel that packs more action into its pages, fearlessly explores the psyches of so many complex characters and weaves intersecting storylines together in such a powerful way. Shane Joseph reveals in this novel how the choices we make in life inevitably come home to roost, including whether we choose to escape our past or come to terms it.
And if you are fan of metaphors as I am, pay attention to the lighthouse!
But Milltown is much more than it seems. It is a boiling cauldron of greed, political corruption, simmering violence, dark secrets and racial strife. Opposing forces are battling for control – unscrupulous businessman Art Hamilton who owns half the town including the chemical plant and has mayor Fran Morgan firmly in his pocket, and his nemesis lawyer Rick Jones who tries to expose the dark underbelly of Milltown while battling his own demons.
Caught in the middle are: Sri Lanka refugee Sam Selvadurai who is trying to build a new life in Canada for his wife and daughter with his restaurant South Asian Delights; widow Sue Miller and her son Billy; and corporate accountant Jane Garner who is attempting to reinvent herself as a divorced mom fighting for custody of her son Jeremy.
“Milltown” builds to a startling climax with a catastrophic accident and an explosion of violence with Art’s troubled son Andy as the catalyst. You may think I have revealed too much. But trust me, I have only scratched the surface of all that takes place.
You will rarely find a novel that packs more action into its pages, fearlessly explores the psyches of so many complex characters and weaves intersecting storylines together in such a powerful way. Shane Joseph reveals in this novel how the choices we make in life inevitably come home to roost, including whether we choose to escape our past or come to terms it.
And if you are fan of metaphors as I am, pay attention to the lighthouse!
February 5, 2019
Review of Milltown by Shane Joseph
In his recent and most welcome novel, Milltown, Shane Joseph introduces a cast of diverse and distinctive characters thrust together in a series of events ranging from the ordinary to the bizarre. The action occurs in a provincial Ontario town with a whiff of political venality bubbling just below the surface where the disparate characters generate the dramatic fallout that results from opposing human forces uncontrolled. The fundamental adversaries of goodwill and animosity, lust and love, avarice and apathy, duplicity and deceit swiftly escalate into a crescendo from which there appears to be no possible way out for any of the protagonists.
Sam Selvadurai’s brief inner reflections on life in contemporary Canada as he walks on Milltown’s boardwalk in sight of the all-seeing lighthouse that looks simultaneously out into the great lake and back onto the farmland and the deceptively quiet town, bookend this passionate novel. Sam is a decent family man, a recent immigrant who, having escaped a devastating civil war in Sri Lanka with his wife Malani, daughter Sarojini and son Mahesh, is searching to create a new and better life in Milltown after a less than satisfactory start in Toronto. But if he cannot even escape the mafia who would extort him to continue the war in his motherland, what chance does he have?
Between these pensive bookends is a vivid drama. In truth there is a series of skillfully interlinked intrigues involving a wide assortment of people that we have all read about in local newspapers and perhaps even met in person. Their stories thrill and shock as they gather in pace and complexity. The relentless blows delivered by the rapid action guarantee that you will be incapable of putting this book down before reaching the final page.
The key characters include: Frank Morgan, the ineffectual mayor of Milltown who depends on exchanging favours rather than exhibiting political competence. His wife lives mostly in Florida leaving him free to harass his vulnerable assistant, Sue Miller. Sue is a struggling single-mom whose husband died young of cancer, probably induced by exposure to chemicals in entrepreneur Art Hamilton’s plant. Her son, Billy, is a high school senior whose girlfriend died in his arms, shot by a fellow student, Andy Hamilton, unrepentant and serving time in jail.
Art Hamilton, Andy’s father, is a single-minded businessman whose misplaced priorities have already led to his wife’s suicide. Andy, escapes from a prison van during a transfer and secretly makes his way back to his native Milltown, armed with the prison guard’s pistol.
Rick Jones is Art’s brother-in-law. His wife Brenda, Art’s sister-in-law, died shortly after their marriage. Rick carries a candle for Sue Miller, Brenda’s best friend. Once a promising lawyer, Rick is struggling to remain sober and dares to stand against Frank Morgan for the position of mayor of Milltown.
Jane Garner is a bright young accountant, a divorcee, as unscrupulous in business as she is wanton in her private life. Art Hamilton needs a partner with precisely these imperfections which, in his eyes, are virtues.
As these characters become involved with one another in ways that are more or less innocent, the action begins to build and reaches one unexpected climax after another until it finally appears to have spiralled completely out of control threatening the happiness, reputations and the very lives of the protagonists. At the climax, the only outcome, apparently, is total catastrophe.
The complex narrative that Milltown relates can’t, however, be summed up simply in terms of its main characters and what they individually or together can or cannot do. The vainglorious Mayor Morgan is an instrument but not the cause of businessman Art Hamilton’s ascension into economic dominance. And the more powerful Art succeeds in becoming, the more valuable he is to the mayor’s political survival. The relative helplessness of Sue or of Sam Selvadurai cannot be laid solely at the doorstep of Art’s greed or Frank’s misuse of the office he holds. The mysterious Milltown itself, with its history dependent on the growth of an increasingly unbridled free market tolerated by a municipal government lacking the moral fibre to seek the common good, is the force that worms its way into the community and poisons the lives of its members, the weak and the powerful alike.
Underlying all the well-meant struggling and striving, the less-principled wheeling and dealing, the normal and abnormal human search for warmth, sex, understanding and successful personal relationships, there is a cancerous tendency in Milltown to opt for a managerialism that conveniently avoids the embarrassment and untidiness of honest and transparent public exchange.
As Milltown grows more polarized, its politicians, business-owners, citizens and even its high school students are losing the ability to address the fundamental questions that gave the town its successful start so full of promise. What makes for a fair and decent community? What does it mean for its members to live good and responsible lives? Can we agree on what we owe one another as neighbours as opposed to how much we can extort from one another for the least effort?
Milltown is a credible metaphor for the moral shallowness and the spiritual hollowness of much of contemporary life as Canada transitions from its rural and tight-knit village origins to an increasingly uncaring and self-seeking urban jungle with few common beliefs, shared aspirations or the taste for accepting moral responsibility.
The author handles the complexity of character, setting and plot with confidence and skill. He makes excellent use of the incestuous and long-term relationships within a small town to develop and distress the narrative. He builds complexity as the story progresses in ways that the reader would never imagine but finds wholly credible in our contemporary world. Shane Joseph is fearless in having his characters suffer within incidents that a lesser writer would balk at – coercion between employer and employee, sexual jealousy that leads to brutal violence, bullying that is resolved only at knife-point, cross-racial teenage pregnancy, financial greed that puts the general public directly in harm’s way.
Just when you are led to believe the ultimate crisis has been reached, it is replaced by another more serious one. How can the author resolve one let alone all of these?
The cunningly constructed plot is driven by characters searching for second chances – some to cover their tracks, some to redeem themselves, others to exact revenge, and one that draws from the depths of depravity experienced only by a madman or a psychopath.
By matching the end of the narrative to the way it began, with Sam Selvadurai’s contemplation on what it means to start a new life as an immigrant, Shane Joseph shrewdly sums up his story’s essence: that Milltown – or any Canadian community -- must overcome the disorder brought on by excessive individualism if it is to find its way again and fulfill the potential it is capable of.
Milltown is a riveting novel. It will make an even more riveting miniseries for television.
In his recent and most welcome novel, Milltown, Shane Joseph introduces a cast of diverse and distinctive characters thrust together in a series of events ranging from the ordinary to the bizarre. The action occurs in a provincial Ontario town with a whiff of political venality bubbling just below the surface where the disparate characters generate the dramatic fallout that results from opposing human forces uncontrolled. The fundamental adversaries of goodwill and animosity, lust and love, avarice and apathy, duplicity and deceit swiftly escalate into a crescendo from which there appears to be no possible way out for any of the protagonists.
Sam Selvadurai’s brief inner reflections on life in contemporary Canada as he walks on Milltown’s boardwalk in sight of the all-seeing lighthouse that looks simultaneously out into the great lake and back onto the farmland and the deceptively quiet town, bookend this passionate novel. Sam is a decent family man, a recent immigrant who, having escaped a devastating civil war in Sri Lanka with his wife Malani, daughter Sarojini and son Mahesh, is searching to create a new and better life in Milltown after a less than satisfactory start in Toronto. But if he cannot even escape the mafia who would extort him to continue the war in his motherland, what chance does he have?
Between these pensive bookends is a vivid drama. In truth there is a series of skillfully interlinked intrigues involving a wide assortment of people that we have all read about in local newspapers and perhaps even met in person. Their stories thrill and shock as they gather in pace and complexity. The relentless blows delivered by the rapid action guarantee that you will be incapable of putting this book down before reaching the final page.
The key characters include: Frank Morgan, the ineffectual mayor of Milltown who depends on exchanging favours rather than exhibiting political competence. His wife lives mostly in Florida leaving him free to harass his vulnerable assistant, Sue Miller. Sue is a struggling single-mom whose husband died young of cancer, probably induced by exposure to chemicals in entrepreneur Art Hamilton’s plant. Her son, Billy, is a high school senior whose girlfriend died in his arms, shot by a fellow student, Andy Hamilton, unrepentant and serving time in jail.
Art Hamilton, Andy’s father, is a single-minded businessman whose misplaced priorities have already led to his wife’s suicide. Andy, escapes from a prison van during a transfer and secretly makes his way back to his native Milltown, armed with the prison guard’s pistol.
Rick Jones is Art’s brother-in-law. His wife Brenda, Art’s sister-in-law, died shortly after their marriage. Rick carries a candle for Sue Miller, Brenda’s best friend. Once a promising lawyer, Rick is struggling to remain sober and dares to stand against Frank Morgan for the position of mayor of Milltown.
Jane Garner is a bright young accountant, a divorcee, as unscrupulous in business as she is wanton in her private life. Art Hamilton needs a partner with precisely these imperfections which, in his eyes, are virtues.
As these characters become involved with one another in ways that are more or less innocent, the action begins to build and reaches one unexpected climax after another until it finally appears to have spiralled completely out of control threatening the happiness, reputations and the very lives of the protagonists. At the climax, the only outcome, apparently, is total catastrophe.
The complex narrative that Milltown relates can’t, however, be summed up simply in terms of its main characters and what they individually or together can or cannot do. The vainglorious Mayor Morgan is an instrument but not the cause of businessman Art Hamilton’s ascension into economic dominance. And the more powerful Art succeeds in becoming, the more valuable he is to the mayor’s political survival. The relative helplessness of Sue or of Sam Selvadurai cannot be laid solely at the doorstep of Art’s greed or Frank’s misuse of the office he holds. The mysterious Milltown itself, with its history dependent on the growth of an increasingly unbridled free market tolerated by a municipal government lacking the moral fibre to seek the common good, is the force that worms its way into the community and poisons the lives of its members, the weak and the powerful alike.
Underlying all the well-meant struggling and striving, the less-principled wheeling and dealing, the normal and abnormal human search for warmth, sex, understanding and successful personal relationships, there is a cancerous tendency in Milltown to opt for a managerialism that conveniently avoids the embarrassment and untidiness of honest and transparent public exchange.
As Milltown grows more polarized, its politicians, business-owners, citizens and even its high school students are losing the ability to address the fundamental questions that gave the town its successful start so full of promise. What makes for a fair and decent community? What does it mean for its members to live good and responsible lives? Can we agree on what we owe one another as neighbours as opposed to how much we can extort from one another for the least effort?
Milltown is a credible metaphor for the moral shallowness and the spiritual hollowness of much of contemporary life as Canada transitions from its rural and tight-knit village origins to an increasingly uncaring and self-seeking urban jungle with few common beliefs, shared aspirations or the taste for accepting moral responsibility.
The author handles the complexity of character, setting and plot with confidence and skill. He makes excellent use of the incestuous and long-term relationships within a small town to develop and distress the narrative. He builds complexity as the story progresses in ways that the reader would never imagine but finds wholly credible in our contemporary world. Shane Joseph is fearless in having his characters suffer within incidents that a lesser writer would balk at – coercion between employer and employee, sexual jealousy that leads to brutal violence, bullying that is resolved only at knife-point, cross-racial teenage pregnancy, financial greed that puts the general public directly in harm’s way.
Just when you are led to believe the ultimate crisis has been reached, it is replaced by another more serious one. How can the author resolve one let alone all of these?
The cunningly constructed plot is driven by characters searching for second chances – some to cover their tracks, some to redeem themselves, others to exact revenge, and one that draws from the depths of depravity experienced only by a madman or a psychopath.
By matching the end of the narrative to the way it began, with Sam Selvadurai’s contemplation on what it means to start a new life as an immigrant, Shane Joseph shrewdly sums up his story’s essence: that Milltown – or any Canadian community -- must overcome the disorder brought on by excessive individualism if it is to find its way again and fulfill the potential it is capable of.
Milltown is a riveting novel. It will make an even more riveting miniseries for television.
November 18, 2019
Milltown is Shane Joseph’s best book to date. It delivers a wallop of ongoing plot twists that keep the reader glued to the pages – print or e-copy. And the assorted group of characters – baddies and those trying to do the right thing – make this story set in 2008 and 2009 in a town (population 20,000) on Lake Ontario’s north shore a Canadian Peyton Place. Correction: make that Milltown Place, 21st century style.
The story begins with Sri Lankan immigrant Sam Selvadurai walking on the boardwalk by the lake and silently asking the lighthouse if he was at the right place. Sam and his family – wife Malani, teenage son Mahesh, and teenage daughter, Sarojini have recently moved from Toronto to Milltown, a predominantly white Christian town. He has seen the condominiums going up and surmises that the ex-Torontonians who buy them will want more exotic meals than meat and potatoes. So Sam is opening South Asian Delights, a full-service restaurant in a former hamburger joint. The family is trying to create a niche in the town. It doesn’t get off to a great start when during Sam’s walk, he helps an old woman pick up her grocery cart filled with groceries.
“I’m afraid your eggs may be broken,” Sam says.
“You speak English,” the woman replies.
Then somebody posts a sign outside the restaurant: Paki go home.
The accountant, Jane Gamer, next door can’t stand the smell of curry wafting into her office, so she goes to her lover, Art Hamilton, who owns the building, to evict them. Hamilton also owns the big Milltown plant, makes a secret deal with Mayor Frank Jones to fix the zoning and environmental issues to make way for Hamilton to buy property next door and build a plant to make illegal pesticides for a US company. Sarojini begins secretly dating classmate Billy Miller, but Mahesh sees her sneak out late at night to meet Billy. Billy’s mother, Sue Miller, is the mayor’s personal assistant. He has the hots for her, but she has a soft spot for failed mayoral candidate Rick Jones, an alcoholic lawyer, whose closest friends are his two dogs, Bill and Phil. When Jane finds a letter from her boss about Hamilton’s new property, and brings a copy to Rick to check out, he begins to get a hint of purpose in his life. Add in Andy, Art’s son, who is in prison for an attack on the local high school where he killed Jen, Billy’s girlfriend at the time. And the other ghosts of the past who keep barging into the minds of the living – the suicides of Rick’s wife Brenda and her sister, Martha (Andy’s mother and Art’s wife) – guarantee that the Milltown pot will boil over.
As the plot charges forward, the townspeople’s emotions and actions – from guilt to greed to revenge are all over the place and heading for a collision – literally and otherwise. Joseph doesn’t disappoint, with the seeds sown exploding on the highway into Milltown, crashing into a hostage situation in the older part of the Mill. Everyone is yanked into the act. Heads will roll and not everyone will be left breathing. Will the corpses belong to only the baddies and will those trying to do what is right survive?
No spoilers here. You have to read Milltown to find out.
The story begins with Sri Lankan immigrant Sam Selvadurai walking on the boardwalk by the lake and silently asking the lighthouse if he was at the right place. Sam and his family – wife Malani, teenage son Mahesh, and teenage daughter, Sarojini have recently moved from Toronto to Milltown, a predominantly white Christian town. He has seen the condominiums going up and surmises that the ex-Torontonians who buy them will want more exotic meals than meat and potatoes. So Sam is opening South Asian Delights, a full-service restaurant in a former hamburger joint. The family is trying to create a niche in the town. It doesn’t get off to a great start when during Sam’s walk, he helps an old woman pick up her grocery cart filled with groceries.
“I’m afraid your eggs may be broken,” Sam says.
“You speak English,” the woman replies.
Then somebody posts a sign outside the restaurant: Paki go home.
The accountant, Jane Gamer, next door can’t stand the smell of curry wafting into her office, so she goes to her lover, Art Hamilton, who owns the building, to evict them. Hamilton also owns the big Milltown plant, makes a secret deal with Mayor Frank Jones to fix the zoning and environmental issues to make way for Hamilton to buy property next door and build a plant to make illegal pesticides for a US company. Sarojini begins secretly dating classmate Billy Miller, but Mahesh sees her sneak out late at night to meet Billy. Billy’s mother, Sue Miller, is the mayor’s personal assistant. He has the hots for her, but she has a soft spot for failed mayoral candidate Rick Jones, an alcoholic lawyer, whose closest friends are his two dogs, Bill and Phil. When Jane finds a letter from her boss about Hamilton’s new property, and brings a copy to Rick to check out, he begins to get a hint of purpose in his life. Add in Andy, Art’s son, who is in prison for an attack on the local high school where he killed Jen, Billy’s girlfriend at the time. And the other ghosts of the past who keep barging into the minds of the living – the suicides of Rick’s wife Brenda and her sister, Martha (Andy’s mother and Art’s wife) – guarantee that the Milltown pot will boil over.
As the plot charges forward, the townspeople’s emotions and actions – from guilt to greed to revenge are all over the place and heading for a collision – literally and otherwise. Joseph doesn’t disappoint, with the seeds sown exploding on the highway into Milltown, crashing into a hostage situation in the older part of the Mill. Everyone is yanked into the act. Heads will roll and not everyone will be left breathing. Will the corpses belong to only the baddies and will those trying to do what is right survive?
No spoilers here. You have to read Milltown to find out.
July 8, 2019
I purchased a copy of Shane Joseph’s Milltown at the book’s launch in Cobourg last April. It took me a few months to start reading it, but as soon as I did, I was hooked. I read the novel in one weekend. Joseph set the story in a fictional Ontario town that I was very familiar with… I live close by. That in itself was compelling, but the story, it’s characters and plot twists were magnetic A very satisfying read.
Milltown tells the story of Sri Lankan immigrant Sam Selvadurai and his family as they struggle to be accepted and survive in a new town, and a new country. Ghosts from the troubles back home are extorting Sam as he opens a restaurant in a town that accepts change and strangers slowly, and with thinly veiled, often hostile prejudice. As his pursuers and meager initial business returns place the family in financial peril, Sam and his wife must raise two teenagers who face their own demons, and bring more scrutiny from the community.
Joseph creates a strong cast of characters who bring a powerful richness to this story of greed, corruption, rape and murder. The antagonists are realistic. They accurately portray power brokers and their families, people who’ve had their own way for decades. Sam and his family, with the support of new and sympathetic friends, fight through threats, violence and incredible heartaches in a story that is all too common in this day and age. An intriguing and powerful novel, I highly recommend Milltown.
Milltown tells the story of Sri Lankan immigrant Sam Selvadurai and his family as they struggle to be accepted and survive in a new town, and a new country. Ghosts from the troubles back home are extorting Sam as he opens a restaurant in a town that accepts change and strangers slowly, and with thinly veiled, often hostile prejudice. As his pursuers and meager initial business returns place the family in financial peril, Sam and his wife must raise two teenagers who face their own demons, and bring more scrutiny from the community.
Joseph creates a strong cast of characters who bring a powerful richness to this story of greed, corruption, rape and murder. The antagonists are realistic. They accurately portray power brokers and their families, people who’ve had their own way for decades. Sam and his family, with the support of new and sympathetic friends, fight through threats, violence and incredible heartaches in a story that is all too common in this day and age. An intriguing and powerful novel, I highly recommend Milltown.
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