Summer 2005 In this follow-up novel to Darkness Then a Blown Kiss, her debut collection of short stories, Toronto native Golda Fried introduces us to Alice, a neurotic and naive McGill freshman whose buttoned-down world is turned inside out by an unlikely romance with guitar-slinging, cigarette-smoking slacker Nellcott Ragland. Alice's adventure begins when she joins the Film Society and meets the first of a cast of characters that quickly grows to include Allegra, the equally neurotic but infinitely more experienced artist; the aptly named Cricket, whose chirping over Alice and Allegra's burgeoning friendship contrasts with the roar of resentment from Alice's best friend from high school, Bethany. And, of course, the dangerous Nellcott. Montrealers and McGillians will enjoy Fried's many references to the city and the University as they follow Alice through the rabbit hole of a young life in transition. Locations ingrained in the minds of many alumni, such as the Leacock Building and the Bifteck, pop up and delight the way a favourite haunt might do in a locally shot film ("Hey, I've been there!"). The reader will also have "been there" if they can recall the terror and turmoil of leaving home for the first time, having to make new friends and leave old ones behind, and discovering the vices and vagaries of a strange and exotic city filled with people who are nothing at all like the people back home. It's a classic coming-of-age tale told in the wide-eyed language of the young and untravelled, though Alice certainly roams a wide and varied landscape of conflicting emotions and self-doubt. Her eventual destination is heightened self-awareness, but the journey is fraught with hard-learned lessons. According to her publisher, Fried fans particularly enjoy the author's "Golda-isms," little bits of quirky imagery, incongruous similes or metaphors ("The students were a flock of birds in front of him flapping pages." "He would somehow find out where they were and show up at their table like a spilt drink.") The incongruity of Alice's relationship with Nellcott is perhaps the best metaphor of all, though, symbolizing the extent to which people can change once they've wrestled free of the apron strings. by MICHAEL BOURGUIGNON Website © Golda Fried. / All rights reserved.