Involuntary Bliss

by Devon Code

Even in death, he said, the novella's power would bind us together, all of us who had read it, appealing as it did equally to our emotions and our intellects.

Intense and densely layered, Involuntary Bliss is the latest intriguing story from the award-winning young Canadian writer Devon Code. Situated in modern-day Montr�al during a weekend in late August, two young men attempt to restore their friendship.

From the streets of Montr�al's Plateau to the mountainous hillsides of Machu Picchu and beyond, this high-spirited picaresque investigates themes of mortality, idealism, and transgressive art from the perspective of two young men, who have met up in modern-day Montr�al during a weekend in late August in an attempt to restore their friendship.

Readers of literary fiction who appreciate stylistically sophisticated and edgy novels will happily lose themselves in this circuitous story that combines the dark humor and elements of psychological compulsion of Thomas Bernhard and Roberto Bola�o with the eroticism, narrative momentum and intimations of violence in the novels of Haruki Murakami.

Genres: Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

Published October 18, 2016

Reviews

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up out of curiosity, being a Montreal native myself. All-in-all I ended up being a bit disappointed. The story occationally bubbles up into something that starts to fascinate, but then there are consistent redirections into wildly different territories, and I was repeatedly left feeling a little frustrated. The Peruvian Novella studies, and the nature and history of the novella itself, are broached at the beginning, but never explored in depth. They are hinted at again once or twice in the middle of the book, and then again near the end, but to me it was also unsatisfactorily vague. And other storylines too: the relationship with Madeleine, Jean-Marc's crazy theories about breasts, the exact nature of what goes on in the Auberge St. Église, the encounter with the priest, etc.

I don't mind the iceberg style of writing where details are left up to the reader to infer. For example, I liked that the death of Warren is never explicitly explained, as I don't think it would have had real impact on the narrative. But the above list represents big chunks of the book that are sufficiently developed, make the reader curious, and feel much more substantial. Then they are all just dropped, and personally I was left asking what function each one served.

If I really took the time to dissect the book and pick away at it, I'm sure the meaning and connectedness between the events is hidden in there somewhere. Maybe the book is meant to be approached from that narrative-studies angle. But as a casual reader it just didn't click for me.

Regarding the style, I definitely applaud the ability to create a bit of an unsettling atmosphere throughout, and maintaining that. The descriptions of Montreal were pleasant nostalgia trips. The vocabulary is heavy with less-used, sometimes antiquated, words. Sometimes I appreciated this - slip a beautifully rare synonym in here and there and I love it - but often I found the balance wasn't quite right. In some sections it feels a little overdone, and that the thesaurus vocabulary doesn't contribute anything to the text. Then pages will go by and the voacabulary is much more common-place. Makes the book a bit uneven. Long sentences I appreciate when, again, they bring something to the text. Here I found them sometimes used unnecessarily.

Overall it's very possible that this transcendental narrative, packed to the brim with tantilizing and bizarre experiences written-up as a series of unfished short-stories unified by subtle undertones, is exactly what the author had in mind. In that case, besides some minor critique in style, it was a success. As I said, I also have no doubt there is a lot to unpack here. But for me that hidden meaning and connectedness was out-of-reach, and overall left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.

[Vivian Zenari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This avantgarde novel consists of a description of two young men spending a weekend together in Montreal in a decidedly one-side conversation dominated by James, a university dropout struggling to find his place in the world after the death of their mutual friend Warren. This is a guy’s book, and a book generated from literary theory classes, it seems to me. I wished for more fulsomeness; still I found it quite funny in many places, and I was impressed by the author’s ability to write very good long sentences.

[Marta Balcewicz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart, propulsive, gave me interesting dreams the night after I finished it.