The City Man

by Howard Akler

March 6, 1934. Hundreds gather outside City Hall to celebrate the Toronto Centenary. In the crowd, pickpocket Mona Kantor and her partner, Chesler, are ‘in the tip,’ finding easy pickings among the jostling masses. Eli Morenz, city man for the Daily Star , is covering the festivities and uncovering the pickpocket racket working the scene. A surreptitious photo and some keen research lead him to an underworld dive in Kensington Market where Toronto’s pickpockets converge – and to Mona. Moving from a tense newsroom on King Street to the frenetic grift at Union Station, The City Man is a romance that begins in an instant and careens towards peril. Akler’s prose is as deft as a thief’s fingers, as precise and powerful as a heavyweight’s punch. Packed with enchanting, arcane period slang and comparable in its evocation of a lost Toronto to Michael Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion , this is a novel of exceptional grace, excitement and beauty.

Genres: Canada, Historical Fiction, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published October 19, 2001

Reviews

[Lynn Bornath · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really fast read, partly because it was short but mostly because it was fascinating. I had a hard time putting it down. Read the full review.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's much to admire about this book. First, Howard Akler establishes a singular tone and style at the outset and maintains it faithfully. Second, his language conveys — feels like — the dark world of the story he tells. Third, he gives credit where it's due, particularly the book, Whiz Mob, by David Maurer. Perhaps most important, it's a first novel. As such, it's highly remarkable work.

Side note: I found the edition that I read in a thrift store at Lake George, New York. I bought it for a dollar. It's inscribed, "For James, hope you enjoy!" and signed by the author, who also drew a sketch of himself alongside the inscription. I'm not James, but I'll never part with the book.

[Bette · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book - for it's style as well as it's subject. And if you know Toronto at all, you can "see" the city in his descriptions....Union Station, Spadina, etc. I didn't find the ending very satisfactory, but I enjoyed the the clipped, sparse style as well as the believable dialogue. Worth a read just because of Akler's rather unique writing style.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautifully written though.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made a purposeful decision not to finish this. I was distracted and disengaged by the lack of punctuation and screenplay quality of the book. I became disinterested in the characters and didn't feel like paying YA library fine to keep reading it!

[Aras · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://electric-pages.livejournal.com...

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too experimental for me! The prose read almost like a screenplay