Sparrow Nights

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

In The Pursuit of Happiness song “I’m an Adult Now,” mature
romance is defined as a man trying to make sense of a terminated
relationship. Sparrow Nights, by former CBC-TV arts journalist David
Gilmour, qualifies as a tragicomic novel, if that definition is applied.
In the book, Darius Halloway, a middle-aged University of Toronto French
literature professor, recalls his ill-fated affair with Emma Carpenter,
a waifish undergraduate that he met at a faculty cocktail party. After
she leaves him, he tries to fill the void with alcohol and other women,
including massage-parlor prostitutes. Consequences ensue.

Unfortunately, there are few real surprises in this work and those that
do occur are unimpressive. Furthermore, the principal characters are not
engaging. Emma is a smelly, kinky, “old-fashioned dirty girl”;
cynical readers will be forgiven for assuming that Halloway merely
misses her brand of “hot monkey love.” Halloway commits crimes
without punishment. Tales of yuppie self-indulgence abound.

This book might be effective as a theatrical or “made-for-TV”
movie. Ordinarily, this suggestion is complimentary, but not in this
case. Since the main protagonists are not very interesting, one needs a
Kelsey Grammer and a Sarah Michelle Geller to animate the
characters—the writer certainly does not. Discontented readers who
finish Sparrow Nights may be bothered by the concluding “Author’s
Note,” in which Gilmour expresses his gratitude “to the ladies of
the Gold Hat Health Club.” A person who did not enjoy the book may be
irritated by the suggestion that he had fun researching it.