Description
Book SynopsisThe thirteen provocative stories in A Sharp Tooth in the Fur, Darryl Whetter''s first collection, offer lots of sex, a bit of violence, and a wickedly clever exploration of human nature.
Backed into emotional corners, Darryl Whetter''s men are creatures of feckless energy and intermittent idealism. Their fragile relationships break up easily, and men who don''t retreat into pot-fuelled lethargy revert to ambitious self-destruction. Excellent as he is at capturing his characters'' essence, Darryl Whetter is mature enough to view the men in particular, but also the women, with considerable irony. Whetter''s heroes are often men in their twenties or thirties, men with little self-knowledge but boundless self-centredness and sexual appetite.
The event that propels several stories is the break-up of a marriage, a love affair, or a liaison of convenience. When separation doesn''t inspire pot-induced lethargy, it goads these men to frenzy. Backed into emotional corners,
Trade Review
"What most arrests about this debut is the deliberate subversion of expectations. He can pin down his insights with wonderful precision, moving from dispassionate perception to an abrupt and moving burst of emotional truth." * The Globe and Mail *
"These devious tales are a black attack on language and lives of smartass desperation. Darryl Whetter's debut is hallucinatory, a new brain scan, an incisor nudging our jugular." -- Mark Anthony Jarman
"Wise with heart, precise as a fang, Darryl Whetter's art reveals an intellect lipping into the feral and word-play that feels almost dangerous. A brilliant debut." -- Bill Gaston
"Whetter frequently places his characters in a personal cul-de-sac, a very brave thing to do." -- Alistair MacLeod
