The novel centres on 19-year-old Alice Charles, a first-year student at McGill University. Alice is from Toronto. Her father went to McGill years before, but that's not what's on her mind. She's drawn to what differentiates Montreal from Toronto: the bagels, the architecture, the diners, but especially Nellcott, a hipster clerk at Basement Records, a musician and non-student.

Alice is a good girl, Nellcott a bad boy-Alice a virgin, Nellcott a man of many sexual conquests. She's a member of the Film Society and by her own admission not very cool. Nellcott, at 23, is idealistic and arrogant. When asked why he's not in school, he spouts cliché, "Everything I need to know I can teach myself." They're a bit of an odd couple. But for a shy student trying to cut loose, the relationship is not out of the ordinary. Neither is its inevitable demise.

Alice holds her virginity close her chest, like a stuffed animal from childhood. Nellcott puts up with it but eventually starts to bully Alice to do the deed. For her 20th birthday he buys her a crystal that is supposed to unfetter her sexual powers. Later, he marks on a calendar the day they will have sex. But when Alice finally decides to relent, Nellcott is asleep at the wheel and misses his chance.

The novel gets a bit soapy at times and drags in the middle when the relationship is listing but not sinking. The reader never really knows what draws Alice and Nellcott together but that is, perhaps, part of the relationship's allure, part of the novel's charm.

Fried does a strong job supporting the story with secondary characters: Alice's high school friend Bethany who drifts from her in Montreal; residence mates Allegra and Cricket who offer guidance; fellow Film Society geeks; and Oliver, a friend of Cricket's who plays a significant if predictable role in the novel.

Fried's novel is remarkable for being unremarkable. The book doesn't aspire to be anything more than what it is: a glimpse at a young woman's growing pains. There's no strained resolution, no moral stuffed in the reader's gob. Nellcott Is My Darling is a dose of realism only semi-sweetened from time to time.

NELLCOTT IS MY DARLING
COACH HOUSE BOOKS
160 PAGES, $17.95

Golda Fried and Toronto poet and playwright Jonathan Garfinkel read at Collected Works, 1242 Wellington Street, Thursday June 16 at 7:30 p.m.

 
 

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Just Ask Me     What is the most interesting and intriguing subject in everyone's lives...their relationships. Every single one of us could write a similar novel to this one based upon actual events that have occured in our times of dating and it would be just as interesting as the next person's. Talking about our relationships is a universal subject we all connect on and always will, it is firmly fixed as a specific time in our lives, yet the placement of the subject is timeless and never gets boring. This is of course assuming, you are not one of those obssessed lunitics, who rambles on endlessly about the same person that everyone has grown tired of hearing about and you are not moving on from. By reading others adventures we can always find commonalities in relating to certain traits, likes, dislikes, happenings and behaviours, yet we always recognize individual separation and differences which we hold valuably; because in the end we all believe our encounters and experiences are the most interesting, yet we're all interested in reading the same story about our relationships lives told through another's narrative.
Aaron Smith	{15 votes}	June 22nd, 2005
Good to see.     It's always fun being able to read a story, or hear a song, and recognize the places the author is speaking of. In this case the whole montreal setting is entrancing enough to captivate a reader. Unfortunately, like Mr. Skelton said "...the culture is rich, it is not only anglo..." There is so much more to Montreal then what was told in this article. Montreal is chaulk-full of interesting oddeties at every corner, From St-laurent to DDO, to Mont-Royal, to NDG. All the different communities involved in Montreal are what make it so amazing. Being an Anglophone who moved to Montreal for a short period, I know the difficulties with fitting into a different society, and I hope that this story does it justice.
Jeremy King	{10 votes}	June 19th, 2005
But is it Bilingual?     This book may give insight into female coming of age. I don't think that it really does justice to Montreal. There is so much more to the Montreal culture than bagels and diners. That may hint at the possibility of running into someone like Leonard Cohen. But the culture is rich it is not only anglo and McGill. There are a lot of ethnic groups and neighbourhoods in Montreal, and it is largely French-speaking. I bet this girl doesn't even attempt to converse once the merchants detect her English accent. So she gets laid, does this really give substance to the setting?
Skeleton James	{8 votes}	June 17th, 2005

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