Serving ambitions
Rises and falls are as various as weather. Some, though, are more spectacular than others: Icarus, the Macbeths, Bonnie and Clyde, Pablo Escobar.
And some are more famous: with “Say hello to my little friend!” and that cocaine-assisted exchange of furious gunfire, Tony Montana’s version of the up-then-down arc in Scarface might be the one people remember. Still, it’s a safe bet most of us closely match T.S. Eliot’s final line in The Hollow Men: “Not with a bang but a whimper.” A marriage concludes with a signed document. A meteoric career sputters. A grasp for freedom and being your own boss ends deep in the red with a “Business for Sale” sign.
Good-hearted Jeremy in Nathan Whitlock’s sophomore novel definitely falls into the “whimper” zone. Nearing 50, possessed of “skinny legs and a dumb gut,” and a firm adherent of a prolific motivational speaker, after years in the business he’s realized an ambition to be a restaurant proprietor. The Ice Shack, Jeremy’s place in an unfashionable fringe of Toronto, holds the promise of converting the hard work he usually performs for others into a clear declaration of selfmade success.
Yet, despite his having “stuffed every corner and every crack with work,” The Ice Shack is lurching, a money pit. He’s tired, overburdened and suffering panic attacks. His relations with staff, family and colleagues are tense. Worse, he lacks business acumen and vision and suffers from Willy Loman-sized delusions. Faced with a “deep hole,” he makes all kinds of questionable decisions.
Plotting the man’s missteps and attempted course corrections, Congratulations finds its best moments in comic scenes within a plot that’s not always wholly gripping. To his credit, Whitlock’s evident affection for his hero encourages interest in an unexceptional guy with half-baked plans.
Foolish yet sympathetic and never quite the master of his destiny that his bestselling mentor insists anyone can become, Jeremy is a man of dreams if not of means. Having uncritically swallowed the message and unwilling to look deeply at his own shortcomings, he’s fated to fail. It could happen to any of us. Brett Josef Grubisic’s book From Up River and For One Night Only is out now.