The Angel Riots Sings

I've finally managed to read my first novel since the baby was born and it was a quick and dirty read.

The Angel Riots, by Ibi Kaslik, enters the touring mayhem of fictional bands The Divine Light Orchestra and The Angel Riots. Through the eyes of Jim, a teen aged violin prodigy, and Rize, a mentally unstable trombone player, we are introduced to a cast of rising Canadian indie pop hipsters.

The brush Kaslik uses to paint some of her characters is not always a kind one. Margo, the only female singer, is described as a chubby, manipulative lush. Kellogg, the mastermind behind the many-membered Montreal pop orchestra, is an egotistical, coke-sniffing self-promoter.

With more tender considerations, Rize and Jim emerge as complicated, poetic voices nearly consumed by the monster of pop success.

For this seriously sleep-deprived mom, The Angel Riots comes alive when Kaslik delves into the gritty lifestyle of touring. I flipped through the pages, hungry to read more about the drugs, the booze, the destructive force of such a transient lifestyle. The book is juicy but it was hard for me to discern how much of the thrill I experienced was informed by my sense that, ahem, some of the characters seemed awfully familiar.

Penguin made no bones when it was promoting The Angel Riots to suggest it was inspired by Kaslik's relationship to certain popular Toronto indie bands. And anyone who is familiar with the personalities in these bands may recognize certain physical and emotional characteristics in some of these characters.

At times I caught myself losing sight of the fiction of Kaslik's work and focusing mainly on the scandalous non-fiction possibilities. Oh my god, has he really done heroin? Wow, was her ex really that crazy?

These sorts of questions are not the kind that normally arise when I'm reading a novel, and Kaslik herself has mentioned to me that she is sick of folks forgetting that she is a fiction writer, not a tabloid editor.

Based solely on the strength of Kaslik's writing, the novel could maintain its page-turning pace for a reader less familiar with the indie scene in Toronto. And its poetic moments are strong. I'm just not currently in a head space to appreciate fine writing. Which is maybe why the dirty angels in Kaslik's novel entertained me the most.