Toronto Book Award Winner Cordelia Strube is back with another caustic, subversive, and darkly humorous book
Stevie, a recovering alcoholic and kitchen manager of Chappy's, a small chain restaurant, is frantically trying to prevent the people around her from going supernova: her PTSD-suffering veteran son, her uproariously demented parents, the polyglot eccentrics who work in her kitchen, the blind geriatric dog she inherits, and a damaged five-year-old who landed on her doorstep and might just be her granddaughter.
In the tight grip of new corporate owners, Stevie battles corporate's "restructuring" to save her kitchen, while trying to learn to forgive herself and maybe allow some love back into her life. Stevie's biting, hilarious take on her own and others' foibles will make you cheer and will have you loving Misconduct of the Heart (in the immortal words of Stevie's best line cook) "like never tomorrow."
Award-winning author Cordelia Strube returns to her unforgettable terrain of the forgotten inner burbs of east Toronto with this scabrous, infinitely humane story of those who work at a small-chain restaurant.
Cordelia Strube is the author of ten critically acclaimed novels. She has been nominated for the Governor General's Award, the Trillium Book Award, and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
"Do you remember Stan?" I ask.
"Of course."
"He pulled me from the dishpit. Taught me everything I know."
"You were teacher's pet. He called the rest of us dipshits and ne'er do wells."
"I went to see him in hospital. It was weird because there was nothing to say really, outside Chappy's. I said I'd visit him again but he told me not to come back."
"I visited him a bunch of times."
"When?"
"Before he died."
"He let you?"
"I didn't give him a choice. He had nobody."
"But, I mean, you just showed up at the hospital even though he told you not to?"
"I brought him thermal socks. His feet were cold."
That I didn't have the courage to do this, to show my devotion despite Stan's objections, reactivates a seething inner loss. I grab a rubber band and stretch it between my fingers.
"He talked about you," Conquer says, "was worried you wouldn't be able to handle the take-over. All the corporate shit."
"How wrong he was. I am one corporate animal." The rubber band snaps.
"What did Bob say?"
"Bob is taking an online course called Discovering Inner Pathways to Success. He is learning about the importance of empathy and understands that he needs to be more empathic, only he keeps saying 'emphatic' because, as you know, he's dyslexic."
"Tell me about it. Last week he saw a truck in the parking lot with Geek Squad on it and wanted to know what a Greek Salad truck was doing outside Chappy's."
"Conquer, it's time you learned to appreciate the upside of Bob. Imagine if we had a real general manager giving real orders-a corporate manager we couldn't ignore."
In a Viking quandary, he savours blueberry water. I need a shower to get Bartholomew off me, to become fully sober, to manage my regrets about deserting Stan all yellow and bloated with cold feet; Stan who didn't call me a dipshit or a ne'er do well. Who told me I did whizzbang jobs. Why couldn't I interpret that "don't come back" meant come back and bring me thermal socks? Why do I cave so easily?
"I wish my son didn't hate me," I say.
Conquer shrugs. "Kids hate their parents."
Short Description
Award-winning author Cordelia Strube returns to her unforgettable terrain of the forgotten inner burbs of east Toronto with this scabrous, infinitely humane story of those who work at a small-chain restaurant.
Sales and Market Bullets
• On the Shores of Darkness, There Is Light
