Popular Anatomy

Christine Nash is director of the Centre of Excellence in Learning and
Teaching in Sudbury, Ontario.

This ambitious work of psychological fiction interweaves the times and
lives of three people who are experiencing the late 20th century from
their different perspectives. The transience of each of these worlds is
forcefully expressed through the introduction of writings by ancestors
and descendants. The novel’s intriguing premise would have paid off
more had there been more distinction between two of the narrative
voices—those of Irving, a profligate travel agent, and his
chiropractor friend, Bartlett Day. Moreover, the voices from the future
sound depressingly like those of the present—as if cynicism were the
only continuum—while the voices from the past sound no more authentic
than the dialogue in a period movie.

Despite its weaknesses, for those who long for a return to the yuppie
1980s, this novel will provide a lengthy, if not always pleasant,
vacation from reality.