Book of the Week: Girl Crazy

Girl Crazy, the new novel from Russell Smith, is fast paced and just a little disturbing. Justin Harrison is a thirtysomething, educated hipster-type and nowhere near where he wants to be in life. Harrison lives in a cramped apartment, works at a dead end teaching job at a community college, and has recently split from his prim and proper girlfriend Genevieve. On a stifling summer day Justin comes across damsel in distress Jenna who he seemingly charms with his gentlemanly behavior. For Justin their meeting is the beginning of a dizzying ride into obsession and the seedier side of life.

Reading a book with a male protoganist, especially one written as honestly as this one, takes some getting used to. Justin's thoughts are permeated by sex and violence and video games. At the beginning of the book Justin reeks desperation and weakness. Even when ogling women Justin is acutely aware that he doesn't have the upper hand. Enter younger Jenna, who is both less educated and less refined than Justin, and enthralls him with her sexuality and the excitement she brings to his life. The anticipation Justin feels between meetings with Jenna is palpable on the page, especially when compared to the dullness of his job and the rest of his life.

Even where his career is concerned Justin is impotent and unfufilled, playing second fiddle to an annoyingly self important boss more concerned with boosting provincial test results than really educating students. It is only when Justin becomes increasingly drawn into Jenna's world, one filled with drugs and thugs and the smell of violence, that he begins to find himself and his backbone. At the same time it is nearly impossible for Justin to see through the fog of his lust to recognize Jenna for the flighty, self-absorbed, unbalanced person that she is.

Smith seems to have a lot to say--about relationships, society, and education, but I'm not entirely sure there's a moral to this story. Perhaps that's the point. Either way I found myself drawn into Justin's world and his evolution.

Browse inside the book here.



Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for the review copy.