13th Canadian Challenge - 5th Review - Amusement Park of Constant Sorrow

There is no question that I was drawn to this short novel by the title - Amusement Park of Constant Sorrow* by Jason Heroux.  I briefly debated combining this review with my discussion of Ionesco and the theatre of the absurd, but this novel is really a piece of surrealism (though the line between the two can certainly be thin).

Very early on we find that the narrator, Owen, used to be a dog, and that his father (oddly enough a human) is turning into a bicycle.  I'm not sure this was directly inspired by Bioy Casares's Asleep in the Sun, but there do seem to be a few similarities.  I think you'll know fairly quickly if this sounds intriguing or just silly.  (I tend to be very plot-oriented, and generally surrealism isn't that interesting to me, since it typically means stakes are necessarily low, since almost anything could happen at any time.)

What is a bit different about this is that there is a second plot strand about a company selling home security systems that comes by and installs a system in Owen and Lila's home, with a guarantee that they can cancel within 5 days.  Obviously, nothing could go awry...  Given that this is a much more naturalistic (and a somewhat common yet creepy) plot thread, it does seem to be a bit awkward to try to fit the two plots together, when in fact they are almost like chalk and cheese.

One thing I did like about the book is that there are six or so prose poems scattered throughout the novel.  (Heroux is a published poet as well as a novelist.)  A few of the poems comment directly on the novel, while others are more about the nature of transformation in a novel that features a lot of odd transformations.  In any event, it's a quick read (roughly an hour-long), so dive right in if you want to find out about some of the other transformations that occur throughout the novel.


* I typed "constant sorry" instead of "constant sorrow."  Perhaps I was trying to make this even more Canadian than it already is (with its name dropping No Frills and the double double from Tims).