{"id":3438,"date":"2013-01-03T07:28:21","date_gmt":"2013-01-03T07:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=3438"},"modified":"2013-01-04T07:30:17","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T07:30:17","slug":"fish-change-direction-in-cold-weather-by-pierre-szalowski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/?p=3438","title":{"rendered":"Fish Change Direction in Cold Weather by Pierre Szalowski"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong>Reviewed by Catherine Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n

Published by Canongate Books 3 January 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

272pp, paperback, \u00a38.99<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In January 1998, an ice storm takes hold of Montreal just as the parents of an unnamed ten-year-old boy reveal they are splitting up.\u2018No child deserves this,\u2019 says the boy. \u2018We should have all been together. Dad in front of the television, Mum reading in the kitchen, and me somewhere in between.\u2019<\/p>\n

The extreme weather causes everything to be covered in a fine layer of ice – \u2018The cars looked like they\u2019d been wrapped in cellophane, like sweets\u2019 \u2013 but the intent of this frost-bound debut from former video game publisher Pierre Szalowski\u00a0 is clearly to warm the cockles.<\/p>\n

Intermittently narrated by the savvy only-child of a divorcing couple \u2013 the father goes to their summer cottage and the mother splits their possessions on an Excel spreadsheet \u2013 it\u2019s rich in the brand of artful wisdom easily imagined as a Hollywood voice-over. \u2018Children can\u2019t decide things, I should have realized that right from the start. There\u2019s not a thing you can do once your parents have decided to split up,\u2019 says the boy. \u2018Adults can be really mean when they don\u2019t understand a kid.\u2019<\/p>\n

While fearing he will become the \u2018fourteenth kid in my class to have to migrate every week\u2019, the boy also hopes for an outcome \u2018like in the movies\u2019 with The End flashing up above the heads of a kissing couple. And so it may prove, in more cases than one.<\/p>\n

With four of the five power lines supplying the city taken out, the likes of Julie, a stripper, and eccentric Russian mathematician Boris are drawn together (the title comes from his research into the behaviour of fish), while gay couple Simon and Michel, living as \u2018brothers\u2019 with their small dog, Pipo, befriend a cantankerous neighbour, Alexis, and his son, Alex, who is on the verge of going off the rails.<\/p>\n

Likely to raise a smile are our young hero\u2019s comments on the Russian attitude to drinking: \u2018The main thing is to forget everything, to let yourself go and, above all, never to stop,\u2019 while Julie, the tart with a heart, has a philosophy on love which is ripe for a promotional film poster: \u2018Love is like a taxi: if it doesn\u2019t stop when you run after it, then it\u2019s already taken. To catch one up you just have to wait in the right spot.\u2019<\/p>\n

For all its strippers, gay love, and outsiders, at this book\u2019s heart is small community neighbourliness which reaches big screen schmaltz proportions as the city nears a total blackout. \u2018When the heavens won\u2019t help, we have to help each other. Right?\u2019 says one character.<\/p>\n

Szalowski is a screenwriter and the book offers plenty of comforting conceits and lines screaming for the film adaptation. \u2018You always want more, even though you haven\u2019t really appreciated what you\u2019ve already got,\u2019 says the boy. It doesn\u2019t take a great leap of the imagination to picture a Macaulay Culkin look-a-like in a Christmas film version telling us, \u2018In the end, hurting other people doesn\u2019t make you feel any better.\u2019<\/p>\n

Until that time, it\u2019s one for those who enjoy happy conclusions \u2013 even if they\u2019re spent Christmas fighting with the family. Remember, everyone: \u2018Often the moments we miss the most are the ones we didn\u2019t especially enjoy at the time.\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Intermittently narrated by the savvy only-child of a divorcing couple \u2013 the father goes to their summer cottage and the mother splits their possessions on an Excel spreadsheet \u2013 the novel is rich in the brand of artful wisdom easily imagined as a Hollywood voice-over. \u2018Children can\u2019t decide things, I should have realized that right from the start. There\u2019s not a thing you can do once your parents have decided to split up,\u2019 says the boy. \u2018Adults can be really mean when they don\u2019t understand a kid.\u2019[…] in Reviews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-fiction-and-non-fiction","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3438"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3451,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3438\/revisions\/3451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bookoxygen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}