GHOSTED By Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall (Random House), 399 pages, $32 cloth. Rating: NNN
If, like many first novelists, Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall crams way too much into his debut, it’s still absolutely exhilarating.
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The author of the excellent Down To This, a non-fiction account of living for a year in Toronto’s Tent City, sticks with his theme of life on the margins. Here, addict Mason is trying to pay off his drug and gambling debts to his pal Chaz.
Along the way, Mason discovers that writing suicide notes for people about to check themselves out can be very lucrative. Trouble is, he has a conscience.
He’s also falling in love with wheelchair-bound Willy, whom he meets at Chaz’s boozecan. A sequence where he helps her out in the bathroom is superb.
And let’s not forget Dr. Francis, an addictions specialist who’s never seen a professional boundary she wouldn’t cross, and Mason’s traumatic history with his cousin Sarah.
When Mason starts doing his letter-writing business with a bona fide psychopath, the story shifts into thriller mode.
All this happens against a backdrop of epic cocaine consumption and Mason’s shitty luck at poker.
Sound like a lot? That’s not the half of it, which is a problem. Bishop-Stall is a major talent. His prose is so vivid, you’ll feel the coke seeping down the back of your throat even if you’ve never done a line in your life.
But there’s way too much going on, and Mason’s obsession with finishing his novel gets in the way. Please, all you editors out there, make those new fiction writers lose that “will I ever get my novel written?” element. It’s totally tired.
Bishop-Stall has an unarguably unique voice, urgent and impossible to ignore, even if Ghosted is not for the faint of heart.
Bishop-Stall launches Ghosted Tuesday (May 4) at Tattoo Rock Parlour. See Readings.
Write Books at susanc@nowtoronto.com
