Vancouver Mission

Rating:
Summary: Lost in Vancouver with Mission Improbable
Review: This is a story to read for anyone who is struggling to find meaning, identity and place in our polyglot global village-metropolis. The city of Vancouver (host of 2010 winter Olympics) is a place of physical beauty, surface glamour, and broken dreams. In this terminal quest city, Thierry, the uncertain hero tries hard to figure out what exactly is the mission expected of him from a somewhat dysfunctional HQ organization. He gets no respect or help from a band of fellow questers with doubtful credentials and motives. The missioners are hampered by cross-cultural and cross-wire communication problems. International intriques inside highend waterfront condos contrast with powerplay inside garbage bins in the dominion of alleyways. The book, full of wry wit and insights, really resonates with my experience to make Vancouver my place in the sun.

Rating:
Summary: Who Done What If Anything?
Review: This reads like a mystery novel, but not exactly a whodunnit. It's more of a "who done what if anything" novel. The main character, Thierry, pronounced Cherry, seems to walk around downtown Vancouver quite a lot, looking for something meaningful not to do. He meets an enigmatic Sikh and then an ex-IRA man who arranges to meet him at a local Irish pub the next day. He treats a Yorkshire girl to a Guinness and they talk about creation versus evolution - mildly amusing. He walks around a few blocks and talks with a panhandler and another "agent" - Thierry seems to think he's a secret agent - called Wong. He encounters three "street people" in an alley. Also a ghost. Then he meets up with Wong again, and a lady who might be a fortune teller or might be some sort of elf or extra-terrestrial. And so on. The plot holds together, but allows of several interpretations. The dialogue is mildly amusing throughout, and the language flows like poetry, with a lot of alliteration and assonance. Which reminds me, there are a lot of puns and double entendres, many of which you likely won't notice unless you read the novel two times. That seems to be what the author expects you to do, because the final paragraph is the first few lines of the first paragraph, forming a loop. The whole thing is a bit loopy in fact. But if you're interested in philosophy - Descartes, Sartre, Kant et al. - you'd probably find this entertaining. It's clever writing. Maybe a bit too clever. Arguably a good introduction to downtown Vancouver, but should come with a map.