First Notice New Book

satire with taste

Published Saturday September 3rd, 2011

Edward Riche delivers a whip-smart satire on taste, TV and terroir.


F6


Mike Landry

Telegraph-Journal

Satire is not something I find particularly easy to like. It is often too cute and outrageous, two things I cannot stand outside of musicals – and I don't particularly like those either. That's why I must applaud Edward Riche – his new satire wasn't just easy to like, it was finish-the-bottle-and-order-another delicious.

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What made Easy to Like work was it wasn't just about cliché character foibles or an examination of the ludicrous bureaucracy of our society. Riche is writing about something more complicated, the fickle and subjective role of taste in society.

"If you liked something, it couldn't be very good, could it? It would be enough, just enough to satisfy. … If one cared deeply for something, was truly devoted to its beauty, one saw only its potentiality, its possibility of perfection. Surrounded by only those examples that, at best, strove for the absolute expression, you came to wear, in joyous agony, in masochistic ecstasy, the failures as trophies."

Riche deftly handles both sides of the argument – one: people like what they like; two: knowledge and a social agenda can change taste. He does this with the delightfully devilish screenwriter/wannabe vinter Elliot Johnson. Johnson prides himself on crafting a wine straight from his Californian plot of soil without bells, whistles or perfecting science no matter the financial loss. But he has no problem funding his noble venture by proudly penning Hollywood schlock.

Johnson's opinion on wine is also juxtaposed with his denial of his own roots. Although he's originally from Newfoundland, we don't find this out until circumstances strand him in Toronto again more than 50 pages in. Elliot isn't even his first name, he changed it for Hollywood.

Johnson's contrarian morals come to head when, again through convenient circumstances – remember, this is a satire, so Riche is allowed a few moments of disbelief – he winds up vice-president of English programming at CBC in Toronto. Not only is he torn away from his vineyard when it needs him the most, but he finds himself successfully reshaping the CBC by giving viewers exactly what they want.

And here's where Riche truly succeeds with his satire. Easy to Like isn't a story about a character growing as a person, and nor is it about watching the spectacle of a man as his absurd convictions cause havoc and mayhem. This is a whip-smart, careful look at what "liking" something really means. Which, just like in grade-school crushes, complicates everything from fine wine to a prime-time Canadian comedy TV shows.

"I'm just saying … I don't know …" Johnson fumbles to explain. "You can chase taste all you want, you'll never catch it."

 

Mike Landry is the Telegraph-Journal's arts and culture editor. He can be reached at landry.michael@telegraphjournal.com.