Michael Murphy (18) (1982–)

Michael Murphy's debut novel is set, very specifically, in Toronto during the month of August 2003, when a widespread blackout occurred knocking out power for millions of households in Ontario and the northeastern US. The action follows two distinct threads narrated in alternating chapters. A 14 year old boy with an overactive imagination has been sent to Toronto to stay with his brother and his brother's wife. The blackout occurs while he is there, and as a result of this event he comes across a copy of a science fiction novel by Margaret Cavendish called "The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World" (1666). Following so closely upon the blackout, in itself catastrophic, this discovery seems to him a further sign that the end of the world is approaching and he sets out on a quest for more proof. In the other thread, a man named Morgan Wells mistakenly receives a postcard from Paris addressed to someone with the same name (and a similar address). This event preys upon his already fragile state of mind until he ventures out to discover everything he can about the other men named Morgan Wells living in Toronto. At first he remains an observer, studying their movements and learning their habits. But as his own psyche breaks down he becomes dangerously immersed in these other lives and finally abandons his own. Throughout the book Murphy plays fast and loose with the conventions of narrative fiction. The boy's chapters, narrated in the first person in a totally convincing teenage vernacular, are filled with flights of fancy in which he envisions his own death and that of others. The Morgan Wells chapters, narrated in the third person, are more conventional but still defy reader expectation because Murphy declines to provide a clear motive for Morgan's self-destrucive actions. Part of the fun of this novel is trying to figure out the connection between the two threads. The theme of alienation is one link, but there are others. This novel will appeal to adventurous readers who don't mind being challenged by an author whose aesthetic is clearly subversive. Is it successful? In the end all that seems to matter is the ride.… (more)