In The City of Pigs is the debut novel from Andre Forget. At the opening of the novel we meet Alexander, who has left Montreal with the taste of failure and dejection in his mouth, to come to Toronto for a fresh start. Although relatively young, Alexander seems older than his years, demonstrating a complex mixture of skepticism and jadedness along with a naivety that endears him to his new friends. With a background as a failed performance musician, Alexander appears adrift and directionless until he takes a writing position at a small arts and music magazine. He becomes fascinated with underground avant-garde performance art and opera which pops up in abandoned and neglected spaces around Toronto - old theatres, warehouses and performance halls. These performances often end in very unconventional and unsettling behaviour - heavy drug use, public sex acts and property damage. Gradually Alexander begins to suspect a connection between these cutting edge artistic performances and the relentless march of condo development across the city, lining the pockets of politicians and unscrupulous businessmen while pushing ordinary people out of affordable housing.

I have read some mixed reviews of this novel, mainly due to the fact that there is a considerable amount of obscure musical and literary references particularly in the first half of the novel. However I was not deterred by this, sensing that there was a moving story underneath this and I was not wrong. There is so much here that is worth reading and that was meaningful to me - the bulldozing of a genteel and graceful city to transform it into a bland monolith of glass and steel, the pressure in your thirties to do something worthy and make something of your life, and the manner in which the 1% skirt through life taking advantage of every possible loophole and connection to grab wealth while screwing over everyday people trying to get by. Not to mention it has the best passage on the concessions and accommodations of marriage that I have ever read, period. I think it is quite an achievement even if some parts are more than a little pretentious.

I leave you with one of my favourite lines about the transformation of Toronto: "From below, it was more ephemeral, a dream of concrete and glass and steel hanging above the solid earth."

A 4 star read for me, possibly a 4.5. Sincerest thanks to Dundurn Press for allowing me to have a copy to read and review.