HOPE MAKES LOVE by Trevor Cole (Cormorant), 396 pages, $29.95 cloth. Rating: NNNN
Trevor Cole (no relation) has taken some serious risks in Hope Makes Love. He emerges unscathed – and then some.
Risk one: two points of view. It’s coming close to a cliché – Gone Girl, Fates And Furies. If you’re going to tell a story from two perspectives, you have to keep the two voices consistent and fill in all the blanks.
In Hope Makes Love, not so lovable lout Zep engages neuroscientist Hope in the project of making his ex-wife, Emily, fall back in love with him. He conveys how the strategy is working via phone recordings made for his assistant, Marcie, to transcribe. Zep is absolutely himself in these messages: vulgar, self-centred, delusional.
In stark contrast to Zep’s rants, Hope reports on the project in two ways, one a series of ultra-neutral scientific reports on how events are affecting Emily’s brain. In other chapters she uses a more personal style to explain her reactions to Zep and imparts details of her own story, including a harrowing section where she reveals – very explicitly – a painful secret. Skilfully, Cole finds just the right tone for each of these voices.
Cole’s second risk has to do with creating unlikeable characters. It’s clear from the start that Zep is a piece of work, but more interestingly, some serious cracks in Hope’s character start to show, too, especially when she uses ethically problematic strategies to achieve Zep’s goal.
Cole has to figure out how to make us care – we aren’t automatically on board with Zep’s central desire – and he succeeds by making Hope extremely complex and by developing Zep’s character arc in very smart ways.
This is a surprisingly soulful story.
susanc@nowtoronto.com | @susangcole
