Gentleman Death

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“What the hell am I trying to get at, and what’s the point?” asks
Robert Fraser, the protagonist, a 56-year-old moderately successful
writer struggling with a new novel and with thoughts about his own
mortality. The apparent pointlessness of his novel mirrors Fraser’s
own life. His father, his brother, and an almost-lover have lately died.
The hero, positive that he is next, projects his personal crisis onto
the world around him. The constant wailing and gnashing of tusks could
become tiresome (as most people in crisis tend to be) were it not for
Graeme Gibson’s ability to wring humor out of even the most
dehumanizing situations.

In a tribute to the horrors of modern science, Gibson takes us on a
tour up Fraser’s lower intestine, which parallels a pleasure-boat
excursion up the Rhine in Fraser’s unfinished novel. In both cases,
the protagonist is the object of rude probing and merciless
self-scrutiny. Gibson captures perfectly the voice of an aging
alcoholic, riddled with self-pity and excuses, trying to dodge the grave
with an intellectual smoke screen. Unfortunately, Fraser never seems to
emerge from behind the smoke, with the result that, despite some very
fine writing, this novel does not engage the reader completely.