As Good as Dead: A Cautionary Tale.

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

Vancouver native turned Toronto author Stan Rogal has published poetry, short stories, and novels, in addition to his produced plays. His literary experiences and persona inspire this tale of a struggling poet whose novel is purchased by a Hollywood producer.

Many readers may dismiss Rogal as a “Toronto-centric Boomer” because his text is salted with local and pop cultural references. Fortunately, observations such as “a fleeting Warholian minute (or was that fifteen minutes? …)” are not parochial. Regional Toronto-haters who are familiar with former mayor Mel Lastman may enjoy his description of a “third-rate clown … with … a hard-on for … the Spice Girls.” Later sections of the book place Rogal’s fictional alter ego in Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion and Oprah Winfrey’s Chicago studio, giving the public what passes for universal references in our society.

In the first part of the story, the plot appears to be weighed down by satire. The action eventually picks up, perhaps past the point where readers lose interest. Ironically, this work, which continually mocks postmodern culture, is only fitfully funny. The most hilarious quote describes the plot of a Canadian book about a male protagonist who is “raised … by his black, French-Canadian, strict, alcoholic, slightly demented, God-fearing Baptist father who subsequently goes out of his mind … partially due to the fact that his son is a hermaphrodite”; it is found in the epilogue—an unfortunate case of “too little, too late.” Other targets are less creatively lampooned, especially the protagonist’s exotically spiritual ex-wife. Such characters have been most effectively dealt with elsewhere.

One might view As Good as Dead as a marginal book because it is a tolerable time-waster, but it would be a wasteful purchase.