YOUR HEART IS A MUSCLE THE SIZE OF A FIST by Sunil Yapa (Lee Boudreaux), 306 pages, $31.50 cloth. Rating: NNNN
Told from the perspective of seven characters, Sunil Yapa’s novel has the whiff of a wannabe movie. But the debuting writer keeps control of the narrative, and his grasp of the mindset of his disparate characters makes you believe every word of it.
It’s Seattle 1999, and the city is prepping for mammoth protests outside the hotel where members of the World Trade Organization are getting ready to meet.
Twenty-something Victor, a peripatetic runaway who’s survived on his wits, hits the streets hoping to deal pot to the politicos. His father, Seattle’s chief of police, is bracing for the worst. Officer Park is a bully, and his partner, Ju, keeps him reined in. Street medics King, a long-time activist still haunted by her traumatic border crossing from Mexico, and her ex-lover John Henry are readying to treat the wounded. Sri Lankan delegate Charles Wickramsinghe wants the WTO to take his country seriously.
As we know, the carnival feel of the street event was sabotaged by the infinitesimal black bloc, the cops went berserk, and the result was a shitstorm of epic proportions.
Though he does overwrite at times, Yapa avoids turning his characters into symbols of their various social interests instead, each one has a powerful story. That includes the police officers, who are fully formed, three-dimensional people, and King, who winds up taking a crowbar to a bank window for what seem like good reasons.
Yapa makes very vivid the terror experienced by both the police and the activists. And, better still, he shows how random encounters and small, powerful gestures can change how people see the world.
This is raw, emotionally charged fiction, a rare blend of rage and compassion.
Highly recommended. And, hell, I hope it does become a movie.
susanc@nowtoronto.com | @susangcole
