Her Smoke Rose Up

Susan Patrick is a librarian at Ryerson Polytechnical University.

In this original and inventive novel, Wallen presents a director’s
description and interpretation (with digressions) of his film as it is
being screened to an audience at the Toronto International Film
Festival. The film is a satiric, over-the-top, “toxic avenger” type
of story about the effects of pollution in a Western town, complete with
weird characters who suffer from agoraphobia, eczema, amnesia, and
megalomania; sex; violence; and graphic descriptions of body-rot caused
by environmental disease. The tone of the book is one of irony and
cynicism combined with black humor, and the director’s digressions
range from his need to visit the men’s room and ruminations on his
failed marriages to the hype of the Festival (his visions of grandeur as
a big success) and thinly disguised unflattering portraits of those
involved in Canada’s film and theatre scene. This novel may well
acquire a cult following.