AN IMPERFECT MAN
An Imperfect Man
An Imperfect Man
An Imperfect Man
Set in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale, An Imperfect Man narrates two weeks in the life of Jack Hughes as he battles his left arm and his past.
“The mistake one makes is to speak to people.”
— Samuel Beckett
“I scath a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.”
“People live in each other’s shadows.”
— Irish Proverb
~~~
An Imperfect Man follows the
Set in the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale, An Imperfect Man narrates two weeks in the life of Jack Hughes as he battles his left arm and his past.
“The mistake one makes is to speak to people.”
— Samuel Beckett
“I scath a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.”
“People live in each other’s shadows.”
— Irish Proverb
~~~
An Imperfect Man follows the struggles of J.J. Hughes, a middle-aged man with body image integrity disorder, as he declares war on his left arm. These battles against the self, take him through an intertwining journey of love, rejection, honesty, and brutal choices.
REVIEWS
An Imperfect Man
An Imperfect Man
John Calabro’s An Imperfect Man
For the last book in this three-day roundup, I’ve picked a novella — one of my favourite literary forms. Too often, reviewers treat novellas either as mini-novels or bloated short stories (if they bother with them at all). Yet if you’re looking for a textbook example of classic novella form, John Calabro’s
John Calabro’s An Imperfect Man
For the last book in this three-day roundup, I’ve picked a novella — one of my favourite literary forms. Too often, reviewers treat novellas either as mini-novels or bloated short stories (if they bother with them at all). Yet if you’re looking for a textbook example of classic novella form, John Calabro’s An Imperfect Man has it all. A compelling and tightly focused plot, a strong, first-person narrator and not a wasted word — this is a model novella and a compelling read.
Set in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, the story concerns Jack Hughes, a teacher who (we gradually learn) is tormented by the belief that his left arm does not belong to the rest of his body. He lives alone in the house where he grew up, the child of a single Irish mother who was exiled to Canada as a pregnant teen. A somewhat reclusive man, he reluctantly makes the acquaintance of his married neighbour, Lisa, a nurse who eventually confronts him with the fact that he suffers from a psychological disorder. (A check with Google shocked me with the fact that Body Integrity Identity Disorder or BIID is a real condition, accompanied by a desire for and pursuit of amputation). Throughout the story, we feel the presence of Jack’s dead mother and her amputee boarder who was kind to him as a child. Stories of failed relationships (and Jack’s anxious attraction to Lisa) thread their way through the fine weave of this novella until it reaches its inevitable conclusion.
What may seem like a grim subject is balanced by a solid, detailed grounding in the Parkdale neighbourhood near Toronto’s King Street and Lake Ontario. In the end, the clash between Jack’s apparent body delusion and this evocation of a vital, living world out of reach drives the story forward and keeps us reading. What makes it even more compelling is this reader’s sense that the story might serve as a cautionary tale for a do-what-feels-good culture. Those who’ve read Calabro’s previous novella (The Cousin) know that this writer is no stranger to the extreme edge of offbeat subjects. In An Imperfect Man, he shapes a troubling plot with great compression and emotional control, all marks of a fine novella that deserves a wider audience.
An Imperfect Man by John Calabro is published by Quattro Books (2015).
Carol Giangrande, The Thoughtful Blogger