East of Mourning
Michael Markus

I usually like my novels fat and weighty-with enough room and leisure to really get to know the characters, to immerse myself in the inner thoughts of someone new and interesting. East of Mourning is a very short book, 136 pages. Thomas Wolfe takes 136 pages to clear his throat. Markus writes in quick, cutting strokes with dialogue real and snappy. I had a sense, within a few paragraphs, that I knew the narrator, Brian, a thirty year old bitter frustrated hockey coach, all my life.

   Brian is ecstatic when young Kyle Clark moves to his small Ontario town of Mourning. Kyle is a hockey genius and dreams of hockey glory develop. The boy and the coach develop an intense relationship over the next few years and this pairing forms the focal point of the novel. But Markus also plays with Kyle’s rather twisted dealings with his parents and Brian’s twisted relationship with the whole world in general.

   The author plays with the whole conceit of the first person narrator, the book appears to be in the form of notes taken by Brian, a frustrated writer, of course, over the years. Most people, this writer included, tend to take what a narrator says at face value. After all, it’s all we have to go on. But it becomes readily apparent that Brian is a liar. The whole character he wants to present to the world, this sarcastic manipulative control artist zooming through life who is, perhaps, truly evil, is just a myth. Brian is a loser and he knows it. Everything he touches turns to crap. This adds more than a little conflict to his relationship with Kyle who is good at everything. Good looking, intelligent, athletically and musically gifted, Kyle is, by everyone’s definition, a winner. Brian recognizes these gifts and looks to Kyle for his ticket out of Mourning all the while resenting the boy.

   A lot of obstacles stand in Brian and Kyle’s path in East of Mourning and the plot progresses at a nice brisk pace quite easily meeting the book jacket tag line ”Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll, Suicide, Murder…and Hockey.” The humor of the book is nicely balanced with more tragic, violent happenings.

   Markus seems to know a lot about being a teen in a small town. The scenes with Kyle and their friends, as they play their music or drive around aimlessly ring very true. One particular scene, a very politically incorrect exchange on what one might do for a million dollars, is hilarious. As the book progresses, and Kyle grows up his character grows more stronger and, soon, he can dish it out as well as his coach. Brian likes to lecture and after subjecting Kyle to a weighty discourse on aging Kyle remarks, “You old guys are so smart, just like Yoda or something.” Brian then notes that he and Yoda went to school together.

   I read this book in one sitting, in an experience almost more cinematic than literary. The short scenes dominated by dialogue, curt descriptions and ironic asides flow quickly into each other. Perhaps too quickly. My major gripe with this book is that I didn’t get to spend enough time with the people of Mourning. East of Mourning is a novel that can be read as a very funny character study with a little bit of a murder mystery and decadent small town misbehavior thrown in. Michael Markus has, also, some insightful and vital things to say about the thirty something generation in the nineties and the one that directly succeeded it. I look forward to his next book, I just hope it is longer.