How Insensitive

Hugh Oliver is editor-in-chief at the OISE Press.

A Maritimer with a, M.A. in Cultural Studies from Concordia arrives in
Toronto vaguely looking for a job and is caught up in a tide of
underemployed, pleasure-seeking young hedonists (the 20-30 age group)
who aimlessly drift from one surreal nightclub to another. The
characters are not particularly memorable individually, but collectively
they represent a significant (if not especially enchanting) segment of
contemporary society. Rising above the slender storyline are some
powerful, evocative scenes of young people adrift. The result is more a
sociological document than a novel. How Insensitive is Russell Smith’s
first novel. We shall doubtless hear from him again.