That Just Happened!

Gilmour, David. A Perfect Night to Go to China.  Thomas Allen Publishers (2005)

This astonishing novel – unlike anything Gilmour has ever written before – begins with every parent’s worst nightmare: the disappearance of a child. A father makes a casual error of judgement one evening and leaves his six-year-old son alone for fifteen minutes. When he returns the child is gone and three lives are changed forever. Has the boy been kidnapped? Spirited out of the country? Is he dead? The story that unfolds is told by the novel’s narrator, a television host named Roman, who searches for his son through the city and through the underworld of dreams and tries to bring him back. Pursued by an unshakeable conviction that his son is speaking directly to him, Roman begins to enter a haunting relationship with the missing child and his own conscience. In the meantime, his behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and he is rejected by his grieving and angry wife, eventually fired from his job, and shadowed by a persistent policeman who thinks Roman is hiding the child. Written in the clear, elegant prose Gilmour is known for, “A Perfect Night to Go to China” is a completely absorbing and original work of fiction. It sets up a harrowing premise and doesn’t let up until the last surprising page.

From the Publisher

This book was not exactly what I thought it would be.  This is definitely a fiction book.  The main character, Roman, is descending into madness, but there is no mention of the anger I would imagine a parent would feel in this situation.  It seems as though the descent is a relatively calm one.  Perhaps it is because Roman is convinced his son is still alive and waiting to be found. 

Each night he dreams that he is in the afterlife and his mother is his guide.  He is trying to get someone to help him find his son and keep him safe.  He eventually starts seeing his son in this afterlife, but refuses to believe he is really there, but then wants to trade places as if he really is there.  Eeesh!  At times it was difficult to follow the story. Although this is a story about a parent’s grief turning into a depression so profound Roman must create an alternate reality, it should not take me three tries to make sense of what is written on the page.

The book was a fast and easy read.  The character’s detachment from reality was really well-written and I wanted to keep reading to see what would happen to him next.  I found myself believing that he would find his child (even though much time has passed) and I, too, wanted to know what happened to his son. 

All told, this was a good read.  The themes were parent-child bond, and loss.