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In the City of Pigs
Alexander Otkazov is a failed pianist trying to start a new life in journalism. But when he starts reporting on a mysterious group of avant-garde musicians, the story takes him into a shadowy world of obscure composers, megalomaniac artists, and real estate barons, where the lines between art, finance, and fraud blur and the stakes are existential.
328 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 14, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
February 4, 2022
This book will test a non-musical persons patience while it goes through all the irrelevant details of fine-tuning an instrument or the concept of playing an organ underwater. A story that could have been good if it wasn't written in such an abstract and chaotic way.
I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley.
I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley.
February 12, 2022
In an introductory note, the author explains
”The novel is structured like a symphony: an expansive opening movement followed by three shorter movements, each with its own mood, tone and subject. Interwoven through all these movements are a series of reappearing emotional motifs and harmonic resonances.”
This sounds like a fascinating structure for a book, but, in practice, at least in this book, it seems to lead more to a disjointed collection of episodes where the connections are clearly there but the noise around them proves, at least for this reader, to be a distraction rather than adding to the experience.
In the “expansive opening movement”, Alexander Otkazov leaves Montreal (and a failed musical career) and heads to Toronto. Here, he uses his musical knowledge to get a job as a classical music journalist and he stumbles across an avant-garde, anarchic music group (Fera Civitatem) on which his first piece of journalism is based. Fera Civitatem hold one-off, non-recorded concerts that push the boundaries both of music and legality.
You need an interest in musicology if you are going to head into this book. For me, this was OK because I’ve done quite a lot of music theory through my life and I have recently joined my local choral society, so music continues to be part of my life. However, if you are not au fait with music theory and/or classical music, there are large sections of this book that might not interest you at all.
Take, for example, the first of the three shorter movements. This, according to the author, is the piece from which the whole of the rest of the novel flows and it was originally a separately commissioned piece called “The Lower Registers” (you can listen to the audiobook here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q9Wo...). You can also read about turning this writing in a piece of performance art here: https://www.earthworldcollaborative.c.... This section of the book looks at hydroörganonology, or, to you and me, underwater organs. Yes, underwater organs. I’m still trying to work out how it even fits with the rest of the book let alone how it forms the basis for the entire novel. Perhaps if someone explains this to me the whole book will show itself in a different light.
There’s a lot of music in this book. And it’s set in Canada and it watches events south of the border as Donald Trump is elected president. This is relevant because the book refers to Trump as “the infamous real-estate developer” and one of the key subplots in the book is concerned with the evils of real-estate development in Toronto (as well as a working knowledge of musicology, experience of Toronto would, I think, enhance this book quite a bit and that is one thing I am lacking - the closest I have ever got to Toronto is staying at home while my wife visited the city).
In the end, for me, what story there is here (from the blurb: A failed musician obsessed with avant-garde art enters a shadowy world where bohemian excess meets the avaricious interests of a real estate cabal) is masked by all the other details that lead the book away from that story. This is a shame because I really liked the sound of the author’s description of the book. I wish it had worked better for me.
My thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.
”The novel is structured like a symphony: an expansive opening movement followed by three shorter movements, each with its own mood, tone and subject. Interwoven through all these movements are a series of reappearing emotional motifs and harmonic resonances.”
This sounds like a fascinating structure for a book, but, in practice, at least in this book, it seems to lead more to a disjointed collection of episodes where the connections are clearly there but the noise around them proves, at least for this reader, to be a distraction rather than adding to the experience.
In the “expansive opening movement”, Alexander Otkazov leaves Montreal (and a failed musical career) and heads to Toronto. Here, he uses his musical knowledge to get a job as a classical music journalist and he stumbles across an avant-garde, anarchic music group (Fera Civitatem) on which his first piece of journalism is based. Fera Civitatem hold one-off, non-recorded concerts that push the boundaries both of music and legality.
You need an interest in musicology if you are going to head into this book. For me, this was OK because I’ve done quite a lot of music theory through my life and I have recently joined my local choral society, so music continues to be part of my life. However, if you are not au fait with music theory and/or classical music, there are large sections of this book that might not interest you at all.
Take, for example, the first of the three shorter movements. This, according to the author, is the piece from which the whole of the rest of the novel flows and it was originally a separately commissioned piece called “The Lower Registers” (you can listen to the audiobook here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q9Wo...). You can also read about turning this writing in a piece of performance art here: https://www.earthworldcollaborative.c.... This section of the book looks at hydroörganonology, or, to you and me, underwater organs. Yes, underwater organs. I’m still trying to work out how it even fits with the rest of the book let alone how it forms the basis for the entire novel. Perhaps if someone explains this to me the whole book will show itself in a different light.
There’s a lot of music in this book. And it’s set in Canada and it watches events south of the border as Donald Trump is elected president. This is relevant because the book refers to Trump as “the infamous real-estate developer” and one of the key subplots in the book is concerned with the evils of real-estate development in Toronto (as well as a working knowledge of musicology, experience of Toronto would, I think, enhance this book quite a bit and that is one thing I am lacking - the closest I have ever got to Toronto is staying at home while my wife visited the city).
In the end, for me, what story there is here (from the blurb: A failed musician obsessed with avant-garde art enters a shadowy world where bohemian excess meets the avaricious interests of a real estate cabal) is masked by all the other details that lead the book away from that story. This is a shame because I really liked the sound of the author’s description of the book. I wish it had worked better for me.
My thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.
December 9, 2022
In the City of Pigs is a debut fiction novel by Canadian André Forget about avant-garde classical music, patronage of the arts under the umbrella of capitalism, housing unffordability and real estate development. Long-listed for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize (perhaps an irony given its theme), the second section of the novel Lower Registers inspired the Music for the Hydroörganon concert that premiered in Montreal. Thanks to Dundurn Press and Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All quotes in this review have been checked against the final published version.
This novel is structured like a symphony. In the first movement entitled 'The City of Pigs' in reference to Plato's Republic, we meet ex-concert pianist Alexander Otkazov who has left Montreal to move to Toronto. He is rather evasive about his reasons, wrangles a music critic job for himself and gets caught up in the mystery of an anarchist modern classical group Fera Civitatem that has pop up performances squatting at empty buildings in Toronto.
The discussion around the direction of avant-garde classical music was particularly invigorating to me:
Nothing new is going to come out of a university, or a government funding body. We’ve reached the end of what we can do by playing around with mathematical formulas or new tunings or fresh vocalization styles, or cosplaying as monks, or ‘discovering’ non-Western music traditions.
The best composers of the twentieth century pushed music to its limits, deconstructed every aspect of the tradition, decamped to West Africa and Bali and Tuva to steal from other people’s traditions. They tried everything— serialism, aleatoricism, indeterminacy, jazz, overtone singing, electronics, electroacoustics, tintinnabuli, game pieces, transethnicism, noise, distortion, silence — I mean, there’s nowhere left to go. Classical music is exhausted......an honest composer will have to acknowledge that at this point, nothing is more derivative than an atonal piano piece that incorporates polyrhythms.
I would love to have a discussion with these musicians because my personal opinion to theirs is au contraire, there’s so many avenues unplumbed to go. Yes, we all learned about Schoenberg, Stravinsky and John Cage in music theory, their radicalism at that time but what about overlooked female classical composers? Melding of East-West musical theories and instruments? The much decried mathematical formulas - I've attended classical concerts with modern composers basing their compositions on ocean waves and Fibonacci sequence. An unforgettable symphony performance at the UBC School of Music I heard years ago had the idea of the effect of AIDS transmutated into a slow spreading out of sound through the orchestral sections. This fall, I attended a chamber music festival with one of the programs entitled 'The Feminine Mystique' which featured classical female composers such as Clara Schumann and contemporary ones such as a new to me Cuban composer Tania León. Lastly, the number of East-West collaborations are numerous but I'll just mention Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road collection and a 2022 Japanese-Hungarian inaugural season at Budapest's House of Music which featured koto, various traditional Japanese flutes, violin, piano, clarinet players closing with a unique adapted Hungarian Rhapsody.
The second movement entitled 'The Lower Registers' is about hydroörganonology, a particularly inventive fictional section of musicology. Otkazov travels to Halifax to do a cover story about a hydroorgan and its enigmatic player there in the Halifax harbour. The intriguing jacket art of this novel pertains to this hydroorgan. Although I don't think it exists as described in our real world, I did by serendipity happen to visit the sea organ in Zadar, Croatia this year. This sea organ, which produces sound via waves entering underwater pipes, was given a derisive mention in this novel as not being a true hydroorgan but nevertheless was fun to listen to.
Movements III and IV, The Laugh of Mephistopheles and The Queen Of The Night respectively, are short like II. Otkazov gets inducted into the world of real estate developers and musical performance art. I was personally rather disappointed that the mysterious group turned out to be after hedonistic pleasures despite their high-sounding theory. Similarly, Otkazov gets embroiled in a sordid affair and only toward the end, remembers to do The Right Thing. I don't like how the burning of a downtown Chinese grocery store was downplayed and our erstwhile 'hero' only remembered it when it came time to Take A Stand against evil property developers. The thorny complicated issue of housing affordability in the GTA was simplified, in my humble opinion. For example, condominiums are condemned as uniformly bad but what is the alternative? Suburban houses for all? There's none of the perpetual light rail vs subway discussion that dominates Toronto city planning discussions nor any of the proposed city housing bills such as vacancy taxes or allotment of percentage of new condo builds as affordable units.
Despite that, where In the City of Pigs shines is in its description of classical music pieces and theory as well as the white-washing of corporations through arts patronage. There are other embedded motifs and themes like Goethe's Faustus that would benefit from repeated readings. Purportedly also a love letter to Toronto, I enjoyed re-visiting some Toronto neighbourhoods and streets. Recommend for those who like digressions on classical music, classical literature and Canadian literature readers.
Quotes:
"...to really take pleasure in music, I needed to give up on making a life out of it. The endless struggle to find meaning, to create meaning, to communicate can be so destructive. Everything becomes an idea, or a struggle between ideas. Don’t you find it exhausting , Alexander ? As a critic? The need to weigh music down with so much ideological significance, when it should provide a very pure kind of joy?”
Someone who put up with the hysterics, and the virtue theatre, and the slogans that didn’t rhyme properly, and the near certainty of failure because the alternative was worse: lassitude, passivity, all good instincts stunted and warped by the effort of not living in alignment with one’s perception of reality. Walking this path, one had to make sure that certain things were never seen or never comprehended, neurotically repeating a story about why things were the way they were and could not ever be otherwise. Ghassan, on a basic level, was too emotionally healthy not to be a socialist.
If music was more than pretty sounds, if it meant something, reducing it to aesthetic coordinates could only domesticate and diminish it, render it safe for consumption , rob it of its essential violence. I did not want to be purged by my fever, as Fera Civitatem had said in its manifesto, or to retreat into the icy calm of the ocean and of God, or to make peace with the Mephistophelean city by the lake. I wanted music to cut me open. I wanted to stay in the wound, to feel its pain every morning, to sink into the unhealing gash every night. To know and honour, as Sasha did, the cleansing rage of the Queen of the Night.
This novel is structured like a symphony. In the first movement entitled 'The City of Pigs' in reference to Plato's Republic, we meet ex-concert pianist Alexander Otkazov who has left Montreal to move to Toronto. He is rather evasive about his reasons, wrangles a music critic job for himself and gets caught up in the mystery of an anarchist modern classical group Fera Civitatem that has pop up performances squatting at empty buildings in Toronto.
The discussion around the direction of avant-garde classical music was particularly invigorating to me:
Nothing new is going to come out of a university, or a government funding body. We’ve reached the end of what we can do by playing around with mathematical formulas or new tunings or fresh vocalization styles, or cosplaying as monks, or ‘discovering’ non-Western music traditions.
The best composers of the twentieth century pushed music to its limits, deconstructed every aspect of the tradition, decamped to West Africa and Bali and Tuva to steal from other people’s traditions. They tried everything— serialism, aleatoricism, indeterminacy, jazz, overtone singing, electronics, electroacoustics, tintinnabuli, game pieces, transethnicism, noise, distortion, silence — I mean, there’s nowhere left to go. Classical music is exhausted......an honest composer will have to acknowledge that at this point, nothing is more derivative than an atonal piano piece that incorporates polyrhythms.
I would love to have a discussion with these musicians because my personal opinion to theirs is au contraire, there’s so many avenues unplumbed to go. Yes, we all learned about Schoenberg, Stravinsky and John Cage in music theory, their radicalism at that time but what about overlooked female classical composers? Melding of East-West musical theories and instruments? The much decried mathematical formulas - I've attended classical concerts with modern composers basing their compositions on ocean waves and Fibonacci sequence. An unforgettable symphony performance at the UBC School of Music I heard years ago had the idea of the effect of AIDS transmutated into a slow spreading out of sound through the orchestral sections. This fall, I attended a chamber music festival with one of the programs entitled 'The Feminine Mystique' which featured classical female composers such as Clara Schumann and contemporary ones such as a new to me Cuban composer Tania León. Lastly, the number of East-West collaborations are numerous but I'll just mention Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road collection and a 2022 Japanese-Hungarian inaugural season at Budapest's House of Music which featured koto, various traditional Japanese flutes, violin, piano, clarinet players closing with a unique adapted Hungarian Rhapsody.
The second movement entitled 'The Lower Registers' is about hydroörganonology, a particularly inventive fictional section of musicology. Otkazov travels to Halifax to do a cover story about a hydroorgan and its enigmatic player there in the Halifax harbour. The intriguing jacket art of this novel pertains to this hydroorgan. Although I don't think it exists as described in our real world, I did by serendipity happen to visit the sea organ in Zadar, Croatia this year. This sea organ, which produces sound via waves entering underwater pipes, was given a derisive mention in this novel as not being a true hydroorgan but nevertheless was fun to listen to.
Movements III and IV, The Laugh of Mephistopheles and The Queen Of The Night respectively, are short like II. Otkazov gets inducted into the world of real estate developers and musical performance art. I was personally rather disappointed that the mysterious group turned out to be after hedonistic pleasures despite their high-sounding theory. Similarly, Otkazov gets embroiled in a sordid affair and only toward the end, remembers to do The Right Thing. I don't like how the burning of a downtown Chinese grocery store was downplayed and our erstwhile 'hero' only remembered it when it came time to Take A Stand against evil property developers. The thorny complicated issue of housing affordability in the GTA was simplified, in my humble opinion. For example, condominiums are condemned as uniformly bad but what is the alternative? Suburban houses for all? There's none of the perpetual light rail vs subway discussion that dominates Toronto city planning discussions nor any of the proposed city housing bills such as vacancy taxes or allotment of percentage of new condo builds as affordable units.
Despite that, where In the City of Pigs shines is in its description of classical music pieces and theory as well as the white-washing of corporations through arts patronage. There are other embedded motifs and themes like Goethe's Faustus that would benefit from repeated readings. Purportedly also a love letter to Toronto, I enjoyed re-visiting some Toronto neighbourhoods and streets. Recommend for those who like digressions on classical music, classical literature and Canadian literature readers.
Quotes:
"...to really take pleasure in music, I needed to give up on making a life out of it. The endless struggle to find meaning, to create meaning, to communicate can be so destructive. Everything becomes an idea, or a struggle between ideas. Don’t you find it exhausting , Alexander ? As a critic? The need to weigh music down with so much ideological significance, when it should provide a very pure kind of joy?”
Someone who put up with the hysterics, and the virtue theatre, and the slogans that didn’t rhyme properly, and the near certainty of failure because the alternative was worse: lassitude, passivity, all good instincts stunted and warped by the effort of not living in alignment with one’s perception of reality. Walking this path, one had to make sure that certain things were never seen or never comprehended, neurotically repeating a story about why things were the way they were and could not ever be otherwise. Ghassan, on a basic level, was too emotionally healthy not to be a socialist.
If music was more than pretty sounds, if it meant something, reducing it to aesthetic coordinates could only domesticate and diminish it, render it safe for consumption , rob it of its essential violence. I did not want to be purged by my fever, as Fera Civitatem had said in its manifesto, or to retreat into the icy calm of the ocean and of God, or to make peace with the Mephistophelean city by the lake. I wanted music to cut me open. I wanted to stay in the wound, to feel its pain every morning, to sink into the unhealing gash every night. To know and honour, as Sasha did, the cleansing rage of the Queen of the Night.
April 18, 2025
Really fantastic writing, and leaves you with a lot to think about
January 15, 2022
Replete with operatic complexities and other nuances of musicology, “In the City Of Pigs” (the title itself being an imaginative take on references contained within Plato’s ‘Republic’), is grist for a musical mill rather than common fodder for the consumption of the lay reader. Even though the author sincerely attempts to weave together an appealing tale of raw and uncontained human emotions, an undisguised fetishism towards classical music means that the reader has to trudge through elaborately esoteric passages that discuss and dissect the intricacies of Bach before distinguishing those minutiae from Mozart.
In the preface to the book, the author helpfully informs his readers that the book - an amalgam of the mysteries of music and the menace of real estate that is emblematic of modern capitalism – assumes the shape of a symphony, an extravagant opening closely followed by three shorter movements before finally reaching its climax. An incorrigible fan of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Doors, yours truly is alas bereft of all the intellectual acumen that it takes to enjoy a symphony.
Alexander Otkazov flees both a failed career in music and the city of Montreal to the more bustling pastures of Toronto. Taking up accommodation in a bland and unremarkable apartment, he waits tables in a restaurant. A chance meeting with Sev, a new recruit, sends Otkazov plunging headlong into a world of Bohemian excesses and political blandishments. Sev, an aspiring musician is from and of a respectable pedigree. He has taken up a job in the restaurant purely as a temporary and intermediate measure before going on to a higher calling. Sev introduces Otkazov to some of the most well known names in the musical establishment, and one such meeting leads to Otkazov bagging a job as a journalist covering music.
Otkazov first makes his mark by producing a blistering piece of reportage on an iconoclastic, yet reclusive musical band that calls itself Fera Civitatem. Breaking into abandoned theatres and warehouses, Fera Civitatem are absolute apologists for anarchy. Rebelling against modern materialism, their symphonies and shows are purely by invitation and shrouded in absolute secrecy. No recorded labels of their programmes are available and the only time their songs are heard is when they perform. One of their manifestos says, “our music is sick, and it has sickened us. We pitch between hieratic abjection and narcissistic consumerism on an ocean of our own vomit. We slurp back the pablum fed to us through wet gums; we fill our bellies with syrup and heavy cream and shit our guts out in the bleak hours of the afternoon.” Otkazov, attends one such performance. The show degenerates into sheer bacchanalia. Drugs, drinks and orgies complement eardrum rupturing music that to the uninitiated seems to be a cacophony from the very depths of hell. A hymn to libidinal glory and a paean to carnal urges, Fera Civitatem is anarchy taken to hitherto unimaginable levels and degrees.
Otkazov’ s life of immoderations takes a dark twist when he begins an affair with the wife of one of the industry’s most well known and respected patrons, Lionel Standish. Otkazov also discovers the nauseating alliance between the industry, the real estate establishment and paid artistes that furthers material gluttony at the cost of utilitarianism.
“In The City of Pigs” is a story that could have been. At every stage the reader is getting to grips with the colour, context and contours of the essence of the story, she is exasperatingly distracted by a lengthy allusion to some delicate musical convolution. For example there is a humongous chapter on the evolution and acceptance of hydroorganonology, a concept of a huge musical organ that is constructed underwater and is used to play classical pieces to the appreciation of audiences who are scuba divers as well. Thus the reader is informed in a most painstaking manner that “on August 15th, 1993, an unknown aquatic engineer/architect/amateur organist named Kenji Saito announced that he had completed his “Senritsu,” the first full-scale, fully-functional hydroörganon to be built in the modern era, on a promontory off the coast of Numazu in Japan’s Suruga Bay. Overnight, hydroorganonology went from being a armchair science to a controversial new form of public art, one that united disciplines as diverse as acoustics, oceanography, architecture, and musicology.” This, by the way is a reproduction of an earlier piece by the author for the online webpage “Earth World.” If the description would have ended there, maybe the interest of the reader would have retained its status quo, if not piqued. However an egregious dive (no pun intended) into the complexities of the hydroorgan and its music, the opinions of the sceptics and acolytes etc. tests the patience of the reader. Really tests the patience of the reader. Really really tests the patience of the reader.
Similarly, a detailed explanation on the frequencies at which the musical instruments should be tuned makes the reader (who is not a musical aesthete) tare her hair out in frustration.
“In The City of Pigs” – a relevant story masked by a flood of irrelevant details.
(“In The City of Pigs” by Andre Forget is published by Dundurn Press and is available for sale from the 12th of July, 2022)
(Thank You Net Galley for the Advance Book Review)
In the preface to the book, the author helpfully informs his readers that the book - an amalgam of the mysteries of music and the menace of real estate that is emblematic of modern capitalism – assumes the shape of a symphony, an extravagant opening closely followed by three shorter movements before finally reaching its climax. An incorrigible fan of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Doors, yours truly is alas bereft of all the intellectual acumen that it takes to enjoy a symphony.
Alexander Otkazov flees both a failed career in music and the city of Montreal to the more bustling pastures of Toronto. Taking up accommodation in a bland and unremarkable apartment, he waits tables in a restaurant. A chance meeting with Sev, a new recruit, sends Otkazov plunging headlong into a world of Bohemian excesses and political blandishments. Sev, an aspiring musician is from and of a respectable pedigree. He has taken up a job in the restaurant purely as a temporary and intermediate measure before going on to a higher calling. Sev introduces Otkazov to some of the most well known names in the musical establishment, and one such meeting leads to Otkazov bagging a job as a journalist covering music.
Otkazov first makes his mark by producing a blistering piece of reportage on an iconoclastic, yet reclusive musical band that calls itself Fera Civitatem. Breaking into abandoned theatres and warehouses, Fera Civitatem are absolute apologists for anarchy. Rebelling against modern materialism, their symphonies and shows are purely by invitation and shrouded in absolute secrecy. No recorded labels of their programmes are available and the only time their songs are heard is when they perform. One of their manifestos says, “our music is sick, and it has sickened us. We pitch between hieratic abjection and narcissistic consumerism on an ocean of our own vomit. We slurp back the pablum fed to us through wet gums; we fill our bellies with syrup and heavy cream and shit our guts out in the bleak hours of the afternoon.” Otkazov, attends one such performance. The show degenerates into sheer bacchanalia. Drugs, drinks and orgies complement eardrum rupturing music that to the uninitiated seems to be a cacophony from the very depths of hell. A hymn to libidinal glory and a paean to carnal urges, Fera Civitatem is anarchy taken to hitherto unimaginable levels and degrees.
Otkazov’ s life of immoderations takes a dark twist when he begins an affair with the wife of one of the industry’s most well known and respected patrons, Lionel Standish. Otkazov also discovers the nauseating alliance between the industry, the real estate establishment and paid artistes that furthers material gluttony at the cost of utilitarianism.
“In The City of Pigs” is a story that could have been. At every stage the reader is getting to grips with the colour, context and contours of the essence of the story, she is exasperatingly distracted by a lengthy allusion to some delicate musical convolution. For example there is a humongous chapter on the evolution and acceptance of hydroorganonology, a concept of a huge musical organ that is constructed underwater and is used to play classical pieces to the appreciation of audiences who are scuba divers as well. Thus the reader is informed in a most painstaking manner that “on August 15th, 1993, an unknown aquatic engineer/architect/amateur organist named Kenji Saito announced that he had completed his “Senritsu,” the first full-scale, fully-functional hydroörganon to be built in the modern era, on a promontory off the coast of Numazu in Japan’s Suruga Bay. Overnight, hydroorganonology went from being a armchair science to a controversial new form of public art, one that united disciplines as diverse as acoustics, oceanography, architecture, and musicology.” This, by the way is a reproduction of an earlier piece by the author for the online webpage “Earth World.” If the description would have ended there, maybe the interest of the reader would have retained its status quo, if not piqued. However an egregious dive (no pun intended) into the complexities of the hydroorgan and its music, the opinions of the sceptics and acolytes etc. tests the patience of the reader. Really tests the patience of the reader. Really really tests the patience of the reader.
Similarly, a detailed explanation on the frequencies at which the musical instruments should be tuned makes the reader (who is not a musical aesthete) tare her hair out in frustration.
“In The City of Pigs” – a relevant story masked by a flood of irrelevant details.
(“In The City of Pigs” by Andre Forget is published by Dundurn Press and is available for sale from the 12th of July, 2022)
(Thank You Net Galley for the Advance Book Review)
June 10, 2022
IN THE CITY OF PIGS by André Forget is a fantastic debut novel! I was super excited to read this since I loved After Realism and I really enjoyed reading this book! I was sucked into this story and finished it in two days. It’s about a young man, Alexander, who moves to Toronto and immerses himself in the classical music and opera scene there. I found this writing intelligent, witty and extremely detailed in the best way. There’s a lot of references and musical jargon that I’d never heard of before but it was so interesting to read about. I could relate to that passion. I loved the structure of the book as each section is a movement like in classical music and there’s short chapters. Of course I loved the Toronto setting and reading about Alexander walking down Bloor Street. At the end it was a nice journey to follow Alexander as he tries to find a fitting career, space in a busy city and a lasting relationship. I’m looking forward to reading more work written or edited by Forget in the future!
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Thank you to Dundurn Press for my gifted review copy!
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Thank you to Dundurn Press for my gifted review copy!
February 20, 2022
ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.
The book starts off with Alexander Otkazov leaving Montreal on a train, making his way to Toronto. He settles in fairly easily, making friends and all that and that’s when the true story begins: him trying to live in this new city and finding out secrets about it while forming bonds with the people he encounters, even when some might be dangerous for him.
The first 10% of the book was my favourite, it captured well the feeling of leaving and starting over, and he had a poetic outlook that I really appreciated, but that ended pretty fast.
I tried writing a summary of this book but it just wouldn’t do, there’s so much going on and I think that was one of the problems with it. In the first 30% we figure the book is going to be about the band "Fera Civiatem" but it’s not mentioned past the 40% mark until the very end, so it felt like the description had been misleading because he never does seem that invested in the anarchic band anymore.
Another thing that put me off was the long “music” talks, music lovers might enjoy the debates they kept having about music but to a commoner it just droned on and on and I had to skim so much (seriously, there was a whole page on tuning instruments and a whole 8% of the book talking about the history of hydroorangology.)
I loved some of the characters in this, namely Sasha, Ted, Theresa and Margaret and they all seemed like reflective souls, especially the last two and their conversations with Alexander intrigued me most of the time, so that was fun to read.
I also hated some of the characters so hard that they made me consider DNFing this book 11% in, this isn't even an exaggeration. When Sev was introduced, he reminded me of the “my-opinions-are-the-only-ones-that-matter” kinda guy but for music and had a snobbish attitude that was so off-putting I felt like banging my head on the wall every time he’d speak. Some of the characters like Sean and Lionel got on my nerves too but I understood why the author chose to make them like that because they actually had a role to play with their characters, but Sev was just plain terrible.
When it stopped being about him investigating this band(which stopped at 40%) it became about him finding new stories to write about (like the hydro organ thing and interviewing another musicians) and then it switched to him entering a new relationship
Overall I’d rate this a 3 star because the writing was alright, it felt conversational at times, reflector-y on others and most of the conversations were enjoyable (except when they were talking about music because those were plain boring for me). The story line was chaotic, jumping from one thing to another and not knowing where it was going, but It was still okay.
Would I recommend this? I’d only recommend it to people who are into music because the first 50%is conc with music references that would otherwise bore a reader.
Happy reading :)
The book starts off with Alexander Otkazov leaving Montreal on a train, making his way to Toronto. He settles in fairly easily, making friends and all that and that’s when the true story begins: him trying to live in this new city and finding out secrets about it while forming bonds with the people he encounters, even when some might be dangerous for him.
The first 10% of the book was my favourite, it captured well the feeling of leaving and starting over, and he had a poetic outlook that I really appreciated, but that ended pretty fast.
I tried writing a summary of this book but it just wouldn’t do, there’s so much going on and I think that was one of the problems with it. In the first 30% we figure the book is going to be about the band "Fera Civiatem" but it’s not mentioned past the 40% mark until the very end, so it felt like the description had been misleading because he never does seem that invested in the anarchic band anymore.
Another thing that put me off was the long “music” talks, music lovers might enjoy the debates they kept having about music but to a commoner it just droned on and on and I had to skim so much (seriously, there was a whole page on tuning instruments and a whole 8% of the book talking about the history of hydroorangology.)
I loved some of the characters in this, namely Sasha, Ted, Theresa and Margaret and they all seemed like reflective souls, especially the last two and their conversations with Alexander intrigued me most of the time, so that was fun to read.
I also hated some of the characters so hard that they made me consider DNFing this book 11% in, this isn't even an exaggeration. When Sev was introduced, he reminded me of the “my-opinions-are-the-only-ones-that-matter” kinda guy but for music and had a snobbish attitude that was so off-putting I felt like banging my head on the wall every time he’d speak. Some of the characters like Sean and Lionel got on my nerves too but I understood why the author chose to make them like that because they actually had a role to play with their characters, but Sev was just plain terrible.
When it stopped being about him investigating this band(which stopped at 40%) it became about him finding new stories to write about (like the hydro organ thing and interviewing another musicians) and then it switched to him entering a new relationship
Overall I’d rate this a 3 star because the writing was alright, it felt conversational at times, reflector-y on others and most of the conversations were enjoyable (except when they were talking about music because those were plain boring for me). The story line was chaotic, jumping from one thing to another and not knowing where it was going, but It was still okay.
Would I recommend this? I’d only recommend it to people who are into music because the first 50%is conc with music references that would otherwise bore a reader.
Happy reading :)
April 11, 2022
I'm really sorry but I had to DNF. The book is well written but there are so many musical references I simply didn't understand. Further, the protagonist would comment how boring an individual was, yet the entire dialogue would be shared. Great effort but unfortunately I imagine the book is aimed at a very niche reader pool.
November 5, 2022
This book was incredibly well written with that introspective prose that sucks you in, but it was without an anchor- I didn’t really get enough of a feel for the main character to make me want to read about their experiences. It was just missing that certain something. The character needed to be a little shadier or interesting.
January 24, 2022
4.25/5*
A review copy of this book was kindly made available by NetGalley.
In The City of Pigs is, in its most essential core, a love letter to the city of Toronto, layered out throughout a careful and diverse mapping of its urban areas, buildings, architecture, landmarks, and streets. A Liebeslied which also leaves plenty of room for a critical view of the socio-economic state it has reached, especially gone through in the discussions the main character has with his housemates, friends, lovers and acquaintances – all of them mesmerizing characters, even if I got under the impression that we could have seen some other sides of some of them.
The – sometimes subtle, sometimes blunt – ways the novel engages the upper class’s means and schemes, and their general lives, with vivid debates on music, philosophy, literature, arts and economics, is superb. It truly made me rethink about certain notions in a new, fresh light.
I honestly do not know a lot about music beyond the basics, so that is probably the main reason why some of the more in-depth parley on the on its theories, history and perspective became somewhat difficult to follow, to grasp. Even if extremely insightful, the author was a tad bit pretentious, at times, particularly in a few language choices. This can also be seen as adequate, nonetheless, since he is exploring a hard art to describe within a social class typically associated with flamboyance and artistic reveries.
The enticing meditations on music deserve a special shout out: they are immense and powerful. Despite other themes being brought up and explored, the line that is drawn from beginning to end is that of the eternal debate on old versus new, of preserving versus innovating. “Our music is sick,” a character declares at some point, “and it has sickened us”. Alexander, the protagonist, delves into this question throughout the novel, hearing different opinions on the best way to proceed. It all comes down to an important point raised in various disciplines and artistic fields: what kind of art do we want, what kind of art do we need in a world that seems to have exhausted every corner of human imagination?
Overall, it is an elucidative and creative book. I would recommend it especially to anyone who loves music, as it constitutes the basis of its writing, creeping between each word, each comma, with an unfathomable love for this art form.
A review copy of this book was kindly made available by NetGalley.
In The City of Pigs is, in its most essential core, a love letter to the city of Toronto, layered out throughout a careful and diverse mapping of its urban areas, buildings, architecture, landmarks, and streets. A Liebeslied which also leaves plenty of room for a critical view of the socio-economic state it has reached, especially gone through in the discussions the main character has with his housemates, friends, lovers and acquaintances – all of them mesmerizing characters, even if I got under the impression that we could have seen some other sides of some of them.
The – sometimes subtle, sometimes blunt – ways the novel engages the upper class’s means and schemes, and their general lives, with vivid debates on music, philosophy, literature, arts and economics, is superb. It truly made me rethink about certain notions in a new, fresh light.
I honestly do not know a lot about music beyond the basics, so that is probably the main reason why some of the more in-depth parley on the on its theories, history and perspective became somewhat difficult to follow, to grasp. Even if extremely insightful, the author was a tad bit pretentious, at times, particularly in a few language choices. This can also be seen as adequate, nonetheless, since he is exploring a hard art to describe within a social class typically associated with flamboyance and artistic reveries.
The enticing meditations on music deserve a special shout out: they are immense and powerful. Despite other themes being brought up and explored, the line that is drawn from beginning to end is that of the eternal debate on old versus new, of preserving versus innovating. “Our music is sick,” a character declares at some point, “and it has sickened us”. Alexander, the protagonist, delves into this question throughout the novel, hearing different opinions on the best way to proceed. It all comes down to an important point raised in various disciplines and artistic fields: what kind of art do we want, what kind of art do we need in a world that seems to have exhausted every corner of human imagination?
Overall, it is an elucidative and creative book. I would recommend it especially to anyone who loves music, as it constitutes the basis of its writing, creeping between each word, each comma, with an unfathomable love for this art form.
June 15, 2022
In The City of Pigs is the debut novel from Andre Forget. At the opening of the novel we meet Alexander, who has left Montreal with the taste of failure and dejection in his mouth, to come to Toronto for a fresh start. Although relatively young, Alexander seems older than his years, demonstrating a complex mixture of skepticism and jadedness along with a naivety that endears him to his new friends. With a background as a failed performance musician, Alexander appears adrift and directionless until he takes a writing position at a small arts and music magazine. He becomes fascinated with underground avant-garde performance art and opera which pops up in abandoned and neglected spaces around Toronto - old theatres, warehouses and performance halls. These performances often end in very unconventional and unsettling behaviour - heavy drug use, public sex acts and property damage. Gradually Alexander begins to suspect a connection between these cutting edge artistic performances and the relentless march of condo development across the city, lining the pockets of politicians and unscrupulous businessmen while pushing ordinary people out of affordable housing.
I have read some mixed reviews of this novel, mainly due to the fact that there is a considerable amount of obscure musical and literary references particularly in the first half of the novel. However I was not deterred by this, sensing that there was a moving story underneath this and I was not wrong. There is so much here that is worth reading and that was meaningful to me - the bulldozing of a genteel and graceful city to transform it into a bland monolith of glass and steel, the pressure in your thirties to do something worthy and make something of your life, and the manner in which the 1% skirt through life taking advantage of every possible loophole and connection to grab wealth while screwing over everyday people trying to get by. Not to mention it has the best passage on the concessions and accommodations of marriage that I have ever read, period. I think it is quite an achievement even if some parts are more than a little pretentious.
I leave you with one of my favourite lines about the transformation of Toronto: "From below, it was more ephemeral, a dream of concrete and glass and steel hanging above the solid earth."
A 4 star read for me, possibly a 4.5. Sincerest thanks to Dundurn Press for allowing me to have a copy to read and review.
I have read some mixed reviews of this novel, mainly due to the fact that there is a considerable amount of obscure musical and literary references particularly in the first half of the novel. However I was not deterred by this, sensing that there was a moving story underneath this and I was not wrong. There is so much here that is worth reading and that was meaningful to me - the bulldozing of a genteel and graceful city to transform it into a bland monolith of glass and steel, the pressure in your thirties to do something worthy and make something of your life, and the manner in which the 1% skirt through life taking advantage of every possible loophole and connection to grab wealth while screwing over everyday people trying to get by. Not to mention it has the best passage on the concessions and accommodations of marriage that I have ever read, period. I think it is quite an achievement even if some parts are more than a little pretentious.
I leave you with one of my favourite lines about the transformation of Toronto: "From below, it was more ephemeral, a dream of concrete and glass and steel hanging above the solid earth."
A 4 star read for me, possibly a 4.5. Sincerest thanks to Dundurn Press for allowing me to have a copy to read and review.
Read
February 22, 2023Near the beginning of the book there is a quote and I wish I could find it now. The main character, Alexander, is discussing how in university, music students feel superior to the average person for being able to learn about the richness of music history, the composers lives and the complex construction of music… until they graduate and end up waiting tables for them. If the author isn’t a music grad, I will be shocked. There is so much truth in his observations.
May 23, 2022
Thanks to NetGalley for the book.
For starters, In The City of Pigs is a book that is likely to appeal to the niche category of classical music lovers. This alone sets it apart from others. I had glanced through some reviews before starting this book, and while I am in agreement with their conclusion that some chunks were best skimmed (for the non-musical layman) I did enjoy the story in its entirety.
Alex, a failed musician, moves to Toronto and takes up a job with a musical magazine. The book is about him navigating a new place, while discovering the art and music industry in this new city.
I enjoyed the writing and loved reading about Toronto and her changing seasons. I was a little confused on how different elements will come together, but they did by the end of it.
For starters, In The City of Pigs is a book that is likely to appeal to the niche category of classical music lovers. This alone sets it apart from others. I had glanced through some reviews before starting this book, and while I am in agreement with their conclusion that some chunks were best skimmed (for the non-musical layman) I did enjoy the story in its entirety.
Alex, a failed musician, moves to Toronto and takes up a job with a musical magazine. The book is about him navigating a new place, while discovering the art and music industry in this new city.
I enjoyed the writing and loved reading about Toronto and her changing seasons. I was a little confused on how different elements will come together, but they did by the end of it.
January 18, 2023
4.5 - Despite the criticism in the other reviews posted, I enjoyed the the descriptive writing of Toronto and of the corresponding music scene in the character's life. The book had beautiful writing, and a character-driven story that explored the complexities of achieving your goals and finding yourself along the way. Honestly very surprised by the negative reception of this book - I loved the narrator's dialogue and story.
January 31, 2022
Dundurn Press’ imprint Rare Machines has produced some impressive left-field novels in its short life, and André Forget’s “In the City of Pigs” joins that list with inscrutable aplomb.
Forget has a succinct style that is a joy to read, and the novel has an air of clinical intellectualism. His descriptive writing is vivid and rich as he describes the sights and sounds of Toronto. A knowledge of Toronto would probably add another dimension to the story, as it is very much a love-letter to that city, it’s history and present, but non-residents can read the book and easily immerse themselves in a city so well described.
As to the story itself, the book deals largely with an underground avant-garde music collective, complete with modern agitprop Twitter posts and anonymous videos in abandoned warehouses; an exciting premise which evokes the rave culture of the ‘90s with a postmodern sheen. But Fera Civitatem’s plans are more far-reaching than that, demanding a kind of reimagining of society itself. Forget’s depiction of one of their secret concerts is visceral and brutal, the atonal lovechild of a philharmonic orchestra and the Jim Rose Circus.
Undoubtedly the book is pretentious in parts, and in many ways cold and lacking emotion, but not in a way that I could take seriously. In fact, the pretentiousness seemed almost to be played for laughs. Readers with a love of classical musical will find much to enjoy (and, no doubt, hate) in the book.
Characterisation is a little hit and miss, with only Alexander really standing out amongst a mostly indistinguishable supporting cast made up of unlikeable arty types. Chapters are generally short, maybe some a little too short, but it all seems just right, and the storytelling is brisk.
Part contemporary fiction, part exposé of economic divisions, part musicological thriller; I would call the book intellectually absurdist, and despite its pretension, has a strong thread of irreverence and imagination running through it. While not precisely unputdownable, I did find myself picking up the book often for just one more chapter. It is definitely not for everyone, but I am comfortable with novels that are unconventional, and I enjoyed this one very much.
Forget has a succinct style that is a joy to read, and the novel has an air of clinical intellectualism. His descriptive writing is vivid and rich as he describes the sights and sounds of Toronto. A knowledge of Toronto would probably add another dimension to the story, as it is very much a love-letter to that city, it’s history and present, but non-residents can read the book and easily immerse themselves in a city so well described.
As to the story itself, the book deals largely with an underground avant-garde music collective, complete with modern agitprop Twitter posts and anonymous videos in abandoned warehouses; an exciting premise which evokes the rave culture of the ‘90s with a postmodern sheen. But Fera Civitatem’s plans are more far-reaching than that, demanding a kind of reimagining of society itself. Forget’s depiction of one of their secret concerts is visceral and brutal, the atonal lovechild of a philharmonic orchestra and the Jim Rose Circus.
Undoubtedly the book is pretentious in parts, and in many ways cold and lacking emotion, but not in a way that I could take seriously. In fact, the pretentiousness seemed almost to be played for laughs. Readers with a love of classical musical will find much to enjoy (and, no doubt, hate) in the book.
Characterisation is a little hit and miss, with only Alexander really standing out amongst a mostly indistinguishable supporting cast made up of unlikeable arty types. Chapters are generally short, maybe some a little too short, but it all seems just right, and the storytelling is brisk.
Part contemporary fiction, part exposé of economic divisions, part musicological thriller; I would call the book intellectually absurdist, and despite its pretension, has a strong thread of irreverence and imagination running through it. While not precisely unputdownable, I did find myself picking up the book often for just one more chapter. It is definitely not for everyone, but I am comfortable with novels that are unconventional, and I enjoyed this one very much.
June 14, 2022
dark reflective slow-paced
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Though the premise is right off my alley, there was the vast difference between my understanding and knowledge of the music scene and that of the author. This book is catered to an audience that I am not part of, and while I did catch a few references here and there, because of the sheer amount of information in every page it really felt like getting invited into a party and not knowing what everyone is talking about.
I tried to get through it through vibe alone and it was difficult. The conversations, especially in the first part, were very one-sided: long monologues that both the reader and Alex were stuck in. I find this a very good method of keeping the pace and mood for the scene, but repeating it in almost every other conversation gets tiring very quickly.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing me this ARC via NetGalley. This does not in any shape or form influence my review on this book.
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Though the premise is right off my alley, there was the vast difference between my understanding and knowledge of the music scene and that of the author. This book is catered to an audience that I am not part of, and while I did catch a few references here and there, because of the sheer amount of information in every page it really felt like getting invited into a party and not knowing what everyone is talking about.
I tried to get through it through vibe alone and it was difficult. The conversations, especially in the first part, were very one-sided: long monologues that both the reader and Alex were stuck in. I find this a very good method of keeping the pace and mood for the scene, but repeating it in almost every other conversation gets tiring very quickly.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing me this ARC via NetGalley. This does not in any shape or form influence my review on this book.
February 14, 2022
What a great title for the book because it's based on music And opera and classical music. The sky Alexander ne Leaves Montreal and goes to Toronto. He doesn't work at 1st but meets up with this Girl named Sarah and And moving to her apartment with her friend named Todd.. Sarah also gets an enjoyable restaurant to hold him over. Then you find out how different music and different kinds are in Toronto. And the chapters are designed like an opera. You meant by name Sean Who owns an opera company. This person wants Sarah's Ex boyfriend. Sarah Todd's Alex and bout him he was actually freaking money for different things You can talk about health money really do not help music industry. They do what I'm doing around musical review here and it was all about the drugs and everything was quite wild. You also meets up with another woman who's into the Oregon music..
February 3, 2022
Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn Books for the eARC.
Having lived many years in Toronto, I really wanted to read this book, but unfortunately had a difficult time getting into it. The lengthy descriptions featuring musical instruments and music itself (and I love music) were too intense for me, a fan of music who never studied it or played an instrument. The writing style was also difficult for me to get into, so I didn't even finish the book. Sorry!
Having lived many years in Toronto, I really wanted to read this book, but unfortunately had a difficult time getting into it. The lengthy descriptions featuring musical instruments and music itself (and I love music) were too intense for me, a fan of music who never studied it or played an instrument. The writing style was also difficult for me to get into, so I didn't even finish the book. Sorry!
November 7, 2021
The story is very rooted in contemporary Toronto arts and culture scene, with a lot of incredibly evocative language describing the city and its architecture. Some of the main themes include the tension between culture and development, and maintaining artistic license without bowing to the pressures of commerce. There are a lot of interesting characters in the world of music and performance.
July 26, 2022
Meh. This book was so full of itself that I expected an implosion. I’m afraid that from the start the plot was predictable and even the large words used in the text couldn’t save the book. Speaking of words, some form of libidinal shows up often in this book. I’m feeling bad for those related libidos.
I usually tend to love fiction set in Toronto but this work left me annoyed.
I usually tend to love fiction set in Toronto but this work left me annoyed.
October 10, 2022
This book frustrated me. The first “movement” was delicious. It was exceptional to read. After that, the book lost cohesiveness.
January 15, 2024
It’s the mid-2010s and Alexander Otkazov has fled Montreal and a failed career as a musician for a new life in Toronto, where he hopes to find work as a journalist and perhaps a less impoverished lifestyle. A roommate helps him get a job clearing tables at a restaurant, a modest turn of events to be sure but one that proves pivotal because this is where Alexander meets Sev, a gifted opera singer, who introduces him to a coterie of friends connected to the city’s music scene, a group that includes musicians and their big-money benefactors, represented by high-flying businessmen and a shady property developer named Sean Porter. It’s not long before Alexander lands a position writing for a music journal and finds himself on the fringes of this privileged inner circle. Musically speaking, Alexander’s interests tend toward the disruptive and subversive avant garde. Specifically, he’s drawn to an enigmatic group, known in the underground press as Fera Civitatem, which has gained notoriety for their daring and provocative performances in abandoned buildings and disused concert halls, performances that defy convention and skirt the edges of acceptability. His interest in this group leads him to Theresa, a performer and uninhibited risk-taker, whose connections with Fera Civitatem open doors and enable Alexander to prove his journalistic chops. Pursuing his avant-garde interests, Alexander’s next writing assignment takes him east, to the murky depths of Halifax Harbour, where a controversial project is underway to build a subterranean organ, or hydroörganon. Once back in Toronto, Alexander continues digging into Fera Civitatem and its wealthy sponsors, leading him to the discovery of disturbing connections between Toronto’s avant-garde music scene and developers like Sean Porter. In the City of Pigs is structured as a bildungsroman. Alexander walks into an esoteric world with his eyes wide open but dazzled somewhat by naivety and high-mindedness. When he realizes what’s going on behind the closed doors of those gleaming office towers, he wants to tear the whole thing down. The novel is loosely structured and devotes plenty of space to discussions (sometimes heated) of musical performance and theory. In particular, the hydroörganon receives comprehensive treatment, probably beyond what the reader really needs to know (for anyone wondering, the hydroörganon—though persuasively rendered complete with theory and history—is not actually a thing). Despite these instances of self-indulgence, the book remains entertaining, and there’s no denying that in Alexander Otkazov André Forget has created an engaging protagonist possessing a sophisticated intelligence who speaks of himself and others in candid and sobering terms.
January 30, 2025
I liked the first third of the book. As someone who lives in Toronto, I felt that he did a good job capturing the city, and also the emotions of someone who moves to a new place in search of a new beginning. Also liked how the book approached the problem of new real estate developments in a major city like Toronto; knowing that we need new things to be built, but that it prices out the real people who live there. This is explored with the Fera Civitatem art movement.
I liked the connection in the end about the whole art movement being corruptly funded by the real estate side, but by that point, the art movement part of the story/book feels like it happened an eternity ago.
The whole middle part of the book, it just felt the author used the pages to air his own grievances about music and theatre, going into too much detail on pretty technical things, ones that an average reader wouldn’t understand, like music theory. There were pages on pages dedicated to this type of analysis, and was very boring to read. There was also so much about the hydroörganon, which I'm pretty sure is a fictional instrument. There were chapters dedicated to this, as the main character, a journalist named Alex, went out to report on a story in Halifax, on a short journey that I feel didn't add to his character arc in any way.
In general, I found Alex to be pretty pretentious. Reminds me of those wanna-be artsy hipster kids who think having fun and letting loose isn't cool. The most fun he had was cheating with another man's wife, before realizing that he needs to be more of a focus in that adulterer's life. I actually liked this part of the book, as Margaret explained the beauty in a relationship, when you're able to see that person in a way that they're not able to see themselves — like they're an object, with their own intricacies and problems, ones that they themselves have grown accustomed to ignoring.
I like reading the analysis on human emotion and relationship. But my Lord, I didn't need to read countless pages on what the characters think about Mozart or various operas, or the fictional history of a water instrument.
I liked the connection in the end about the whole art movement being corruptly funded by the real estate side, but by that point, the art movement part of the story/book feels like it happened an eternity ago.
The whole middle part of the book, it just felt the author used the pages to air his own grievances about music and theatre, going into too much detail on pretty technical things, ones that an average reader wouldn’t understand, like music theory. There were pages on pages dedicated to this type of analysis, and was very boring to read. There was also so much about the hydroörganon, which I'm pretty sure is a fictional instrument. There were chapters dedicated to this, as the main character, a journalist named Alex, went out to report on a story in Halifax, on a short journey that I feel didn't add to his character arc in any way.
In general, I found Alex to be pretty pretentious. Reminds me of those wanna-be artsy hipster kids who think having fun and letting loose isn't cool. The most fun he had was cheating with another man's wife, before realizing that he needs to be more of a focus in that adulterer's life. I actually liked this part of the book, as Margaret explained the beauty in a relationship, when you're able to see that person in a way that they're not able to see themselves — like they're an object, with their own intricacies and problems, ones that they themselves have grown accustomed to ignoring.
I like reading the analysis on human emotion and relationship. But my Lord, I didn't need to read countless pages on what the characters think about Mozart or various operas, or the fictional history of a water instrument.
May 29, 2023
This book was nothing like I expected, but very interesting. A failed pianist from Montreal moves to Toronto where he finds himself in the middle of a bohemian world of classical music and opera that’s being brought to new heights with modern techniques. It mixes Plato’s Republic with some Faust along with philosophical questions of how modern music has ruined music and what music represents.
Reasons I Recommend:
1) Interesting take on modern music versus classical music and what it means to have an immersive musical experience
2) Brings up questions on realism versus idealism, the nature of a music critic in comparison to a critique of music while simultaneously showing the seedy underbelly of the real estate world in Ontario and
3) Really made me think of music and what it makes someone feel when they hear it and does a song that validates you become unappreciated when it doesn’t do the same for another?
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Quote: "The greatest mistake Kenji made was telling the world about 'Senritsu. It was his act of hubris. Just as the hydroör-ganon allows us to fully experience the reality of sound, playing the hydroörganon for no one but the ocean allows us to understand the ultimate truth about all human art. Nothing degrades a hydroörganon so much as the human eye. The hydroörganon should bring us closer to the ocean itself, and the closer we are to the ocean, the further we are from humanity. The day no one will pay to dive into the harbour to hear me play the ‘Chebucto' is the day the construction will have finished, and the hydroörganon can begin its true work.”
#briereads #brierecommends #2023goodreadsreadingchallenge #reviewedongoodreads #reviewedoninstagram #bookworm #lovetoread #idratherbereading #fiction #canadianauthor🇨🇦 #globeandmailtop100book #inthecityofpigs #andreforget
Reasons I Recommend:
1) Interesting take on modern music versus classical music and what it means to have an immersive musical experience
2) Brings up questions on realism versus idealism, the nature of a music critic in comparison to a critique of music while simultaneously showing the seedy underbelly of the real estate world in Ontario and
3) Really made me think of music and what it makes someone feel when they hear it and does a song that validates you become unappreciated when it doesn’t do the same for another?
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Quote: "The greatest mistake Kenji made was telling the world about 'Senritsu. It was his act of hubris. Just as the hydroör-ganon allows us to fully experience the reality of sound, playing the hydroörganon for no one but the ocean allows us to understand the ultimate truth about all human art. Nothing degrades a hydroörganon so much as the human eye. The hydroörganon should bring us closer to the ocean itself, and the closer we are to the ocean, the further we are from humanity. The day no one will pay to dive into the harbour to hear me play the ‘Chebucto' is the day the construction will have finished, and the hydroörganon can begin its true work.”
#briereads #brierecommends #2023goodreadsreadingchallenge #reviewedongoodreads #reviewedoninstagram #bookworm #lovetoread #idratherbereading #fiction #canadianauthor🇨🇦 #globeandmailtop100book #inthecityofpigs #andreforget
March 8, 2023
The book is structure in four 'movements', at the center of which is a musical experience the narrator engages in. I don't know music theory and have no particular interest in getting to know music theory so this book was not a great choice for me. At one point one of the characters says something about everything being so damn clever. "Aren't you sick of clever?" he asks. Every character in this book just seems to be trying too hard. Every character wants to push boundaries, break molds, do something completely new, to stand out from the crowd and it seems they don't know how to do that with anything resembling the sublime, the insightful, the delightful. No one in this book ever becomes anything more than a character. A character reciting memorized lines ... trying to sound original. Clever or maybe shocking. Hopefully both I guess.
It's all well and good to want to burn down the establishment .... but if you have nothing better to offer to replace it .... well, what's the point? I think this is what the author is getting at .... at least that was my take on it especially given the pedantic nature of the last sentence. But honestly, I am so far removed from the world Forget describes that I'm clueless really. I too am just trying to sound clever.
It's all well and good to want to burn down the establishment .... but if you have nothing better to offer to replace it .... well, what's the point? I think this is what the author is getting at .... at least that was my take on it especially given the pedantic nature of the last sentence. But honestly, I am so far removed from the world Forget describes that I'm clueless really. I too am just trying to sound clever.
September 23, 2025
rounded this up from 2.5 because i love when things are in toronto and theres even a bonus episode in halifax. but however the male author describing sex with women fell into certain like ughhhhhh r u fr territory at times.
all of that said. i dont understand why people feel like you need to know a lot about music to understand this book. i mean. the book explains it. so you can learn. is that not why we read books ?plus, i found that most of the music references were more philosophical than technical — like, they'd mention a philosopher's take on music, which can be applied to art/literature more generally too — so you don't really need to know how to play an organ in order to get the vibes here. socrates' city of pigs is not a musical theory ya know? but maybe i was more receptive to this because i live in toronto, so i liked the city references, and in turn i had the patience to indulge the more granular underwater organ stuff. i'd imagine a non-torontonian reader would be worn out by the toronto references — because if u are not in toronto why would you gaf about forest hill versus rosedale — so their patience is probs exhausted by the time you get to the three-part operas etc
all of that said. i dont understand why people feel like you need to know a lot about music to understand this book. i mean. the book explains it. so you can learn. is that not why we read books ?plus, i found that most of the music references were more philosophical than technical — like, they'd mention a philosopher's take on music, which can be applied to art/literature more generally too — so you don't really need to know how to play an organ in order to get the vibes here. socrates' city of pigs is not a musical theory ya know? but maybe i was more receptive to this because i live in toronto, so i liked the city references, and in turn i had the patience to indulge the more granular underwater organ stuff. i'd imagine a non-torontonian reader would be worn out by the toronto references — because if u are not in toronto why would you gaf about forest hill versus rosedale — so their patience is probs exhausted by the time you get to the three-part operas etc
August 17, 2022
I enjoyed this! I picked it up randomly based on the back blurb and the cover at a local bookstore and kinda appreciated that when I tried to google it I just got "Babe: Pig in the City." The reviews here are rough. You don't have to know much about music to understand the book. Sure, folks talk about music but it's mostly to draw out the arts/philanthropy-real estate capital connection that the book is about.
The whole thing is kind of Chinatown. The protagonist is not particularly bright, and it's a bit of a mystery why beautiful women keep throwing themselves at him, except to move the plot along. The central question is pretty clear from the straight: is he gonna sell out or stay true to his beliefs - if he can find any.
It's well-paced and has a love of the city that is sometimes beautiful and some times overwrought. It's maybe a mystery, if the mystery is "will the main character ever end up endearing himself to the reader?". A feminist review of the book would probably be telling: all the men in it suck! All the women are beautiful and doomed! But as a sort of neo-noir set in an interesting city, it's a fun read.
The whole thing is kind of Chinatown. The protagonist is not particularly bright, and it's a bit of a mystery why beautiful women keep throwing themselves at him, except to move the plot along. The central question is pretty clear from the straight: is he gonna sell out or stay true to his beliefs - if he can find any.
It's well-paced and has a love of the city that is sometimes beautiful and some times overwrought. It's maybe a mystery, if the mystery is "will the main character ever end up endearing himself to the reader?". A feminist review of the book would probably be telling: all the men in it suck! All the women are beautiful and doomed! But as a sort of neo-noir set in an interesting city, it's a fun read.
August 25, 2022
A grand love letter to the city of Toronto. At least I think it was a love letter. After a failed career in music, Alex wanders into a journalism gig and explores the underground, arty, avant-garde happenings in Toronto, the city of pigs (nickname explained in the book).
The prose is detailed and rich, the scenes dark and stormy. A very gothic feel, even though it takes place in current times. Featuring all things music: from experimental performances and instruments, to trendy settings and influencers, musical prodigies and uber rich backers.
Humorous, out of left field observations like this: "The violinist and the rest of the string section launched into a lush and raunchy cabaret tune as the woman began doing acrobatic tricks and singing in a husky contralto about what a downer accountants can be."
Everything in comparison to a theory or movement in music, with conversations quite high brow. And then throw in some, um, (cringey, awkward, the word pomegranate is used, not ironically) sex scenes and you have In the City of Pigs.
My thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the ARC.
The prose is detailed and rich, the scenes dark and stormy. A very gothic feel, even though it takes place in current times. Featuring all things music: from experimental performances and instruments, to trendy settings and influencers, musical prodigies and uber rich backers.
Humorous, out of left field observations like this: "The violinist and the rest of the string section launched into a lush and raunchy cabaret tune as the woman began doing acrobatic tricks and singing in a husky contralto about what a downer accountants can be."
Everything in comparison to a theory or movement in music, with conversations quite high brow. And then throw in some, um, (cringey, awkward, the word pomegranate is used, not ironically) sex scenes and you have In the City of Pigs.
My thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the ARC.
September 15, 2022
I couldn’t get on with this book at all, and admit to skipping great chunks. I struggled to the end in order to write this review for NetGalley but I really didn’t enjoy any of it. I hesitate to use the word pretentious as basically I felt that the author was sincere in exploring his themes, but there’s no doubt that it felt pretentious at times. Intellectual, original, imaginative, esoteric – all these certainly – but the long descriptions of musical performance and musical composition would almost certainly only appeal to those with a good knowledge of music theory. Performance art has to be seen in performance and rarely translates to the page. Written as a “symphony” the disparate elements didn’t seem to me to cohere in any satisfactory way, and the avant-garde and experimental artists the narrator meets didn’t interest me. Nor did failed musician Alexander Otkazov himself, the protagonist, who moves to Toronto to start a new life when his career in Montreal goes down the pan. Not for me, this one.
June 10, 2023
It took until Movement 3 Chapter 7 (pages 195 to 198 in my copy) to feel like the author had really gotten to the book's most important points. Everything before that was incredibly annoying and even boring to read. Key themes were bubbling under everything the whole time, surfacing and then rolling back into the obscure, but the writing was just so irritating that I was caught between feeling dragged on and hoping for something good coming of all the frustration. Hey, maybe that was the point, where the style and construction convey the same emotion as the message. I have no musical or fine arts background or hobbies of any sort, but i understand that, sometimes apparently, good art has done it's just very well if it disgusts you because it evoked as intended. I mean, today's world can be very disgusting, so that's on point.
All on all, I consider that the messages I think are behind this book are valuable ones for people to absorb, consider and make meaning of; I just really don't want to have to sift through so much blegh to enjoy the final "reveal" as it were.
All on all, I consider that the messages I think are behind this book are valuable ones for people to absorb, consider and make meaning of; I just really don't want to have to sift through so much blegh to enjoy the final "reveal" as it were.
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