Salvage King, Ya!

Description

285 pages
$16.95
ISBN 1-895636-13-2
DDC C813'.54

Publisher

Year

1997

Contributor

Reviewed by Matt Hartman

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Review

Jarman’s first novel is a raunchy, jumpy story about a career
minor-league hockey player. Reflecting the same dark humor and ironic
insights that permeate the author’s award-winning short fiction,
Salvage King, Ya! is appropriately subtitled “a herky-jerky
picaresque.” Its 48 staccato chapters follow Drinkwater as he
motorcoaches his hockey-bruised body across the continent. “You ride
the buses and for what?” he says. “Some newspaper clippings and a
nose that doesn’t work right anymore, a deviated pain in the ass, a
deviated knee bone connected to the deviated leg bone to the deviated
brainpan.”

Drinkwater is not a star, but a grinder, a recipient and dispenser of
punishing bodychecks. He is also something of a ladies’ man, balancing
his “Intended” with his girlfriend, “Waitress X,” and through it
all staying on good terms with his ex-wife, Kathy. But while Drinkwater
is not a star, he is also not without honor: he will let nobody down. He
does not like to inflict pain, nor does he enjoy receiving it. As
Drinkwater careers along his rocky road, he remains an honest romantic,
true to himself. This is an excellent first novel. Recommended.

Citation

Jarman, Mark Anthony., “Salvage King, Ya!,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed November 9, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/2867.