Manitoba’s David Bergen, gives us a slow book that perhaps reflects the difference between ugly Toronto and the slow moving Lesser, a town where everybody knows everybody and nobody really cares. A Year of Lesser is the unfortunate title of a novel that deserves better. This story of small-town love is like a drive down the flat back-roads of the prairie: unyielding, long, and winsome. Despite Bergen’s tendency to repeat himself (or because of it), the author’s style eventually meshes with the smoldering sensibilities of his pathetic characters.
David Bergen / HarperCollins Canada / $16