Sparrow nights /

Canadian novelist Gilmour has been widely praised for his previous work, which includes How Boys See Girls (1991) and Lost between Houses (1999). His current novel features another of his continually intoxicated, terminally adolescent middle-aged narrators. Self-destructive French literature professor Darius Halloway is in an emotional tailspin. His lascivious, much younger girlfriend has just broken up with him. Wracked by hangovers, insomnia, and depression, he starts taking antidepressants, but they don't seem to work. Bothered by the yapping of his neighbors' dogs, he concocts an elaborate scheme of revenge that culminates in their death by poison. He begins frequenting massage parlors, even inviting one of the "masseuses" to his home, where she proceeds to steal him blind. Things only get worse from there. Gilmour is a fine writer with a sardonic sense of humor, but black comedy is difficult to pull off and, depending on one's own sense of humor, this novel could provoke more grimaces than laughs. David Gates (Jernigan, 1991; and Preston Falls, 1998) works the same territory to better effect. --Joanne Wilkinson

The "whack, whack, whack" of the flapping flag on his neighbor's property keeps middle-aged college academic Darius Halloway awake at night. So he sneaks out in darkness and cuts the flag's rope. When another neighbor's dogs disturb his concentration, Darius poisons them, and when, at a resort hotel, he's bothered by the noise of a neighbor's air conditioner, he climbs a ladder and stuffs a glue-soaked sock into the machine's works. Self-absorbed, prone to paranoia and obsession, enamored of young women and fine wine, Darius is the brilliantly constructed protagonist and coolly lucid narrator of this new, excellent novel from Canadian writer Gilmour (Lost Between Houses). Darius's extreme responses to life condense into his erotic longing for Emma Carpenter, a young, equally impulsive graduate student whom he carries on with for a few years before she dumps him. The ditching spins Darius into a wallow of self-pity, which he alleviates momentarily via a visit to a massage parlor, where he meets a black woman named Passion, whom he invites to his house. When Passion takes him up on the offer, she robs him; when he later confronts her, he's beaten by her pimp. The next day, the pimp comes calling and Darius shoots him dead, then hacks up the body and burns it in his furnace all this perfectly justifiable to this unbearably pretentious professor of French lit, who, moments after disposing of the body, savors hearing "the opening, almost inquisitive notes of the Concierto de Aranjuez." Like Jerzy Kosinski, Gilmour is able to carry readers deep into the mind of a self-rationalizing madman; it's an exhilarating journey, expertly observed and quite disturbing. (May 1) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

This is the story of one man's descent into obsession. Darius Halloway, a respected professor of French literature, falls in love with an eccentric young woman named Emma Carpenter. Together they explore the limits of passion and desire, but when she breaks off the affair, his life spins out of control. He finds himself conceiving and carrying out a series of revenge fantasies against neighbors and casual acquaintances, culminating in an encounter with a masseuse and her criminal-minded boyfriend that nearly ends in his death. In the macabre conclusion, the book offers a glimpse of redemption for its hero. Gilmour is a Toronto-based writer whose previous novel, Lost Between Houses, was shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award. His latest is sure to solidify his reputation as an edgy, intelligent author. This work offers a great deal of mordant wit, and the writing is consistently first-rate, layering memory, inner monolog, and fast-paced action. Recommended for all collections. Philip Santo, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A strange and lugubrious fifth novel by the Canadian Gilmour (How Boys See Girls, 1991, etc.), who offers an excruciating insight into the tormented psyche of a lonely older man. Darius Halloway is a professor of French literature in Toronto. Even by the standards of his profession, he is a dull fellow: pedantic, self-obsessed, and astonishingly sheltered from the realities of life in the world. Originally a student of English, Halloway switched to French while still an undergraduate in order to spend a year in Toulouse and escape from the memory of his first bad love affair. There were plenty more to come. Perhaps the cruelest blow came from Emma Carpenter, a much younger women who took up with Halloway for some reason and moved into his apartment. Foul-mouthed and promiscuous, Emma spoke quite intimately and casually of her former lovers and refused to marry Halloway. Finally, she packed up and left, to no one's surprise but his, and he found himself more and more distraught as each day passed without her. He tried all the usual distractions to forget his misery-but to no avail. He seduced perfect strangers, but they inevitably made him feel worse. He drank a great deal. He poisoned his neighbors' dogs. He traveled to the Caribbean. Soon, he found himself visiting sleazy massage parlors in dodgy parts of town. He became particularly attached to one masseuse named Passion, who eventually came to see him at home and burgled his house. When he threatened to report her to the police, her pimp beat him up. When the pimp came to pay him a second call, Halloway shot him to death and burned his corpse in the furnace. Then he fell in love with someone else, married her, and . . . . Pointless, aimless, joyless, fruitless, and flavorless.