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'Denoon has a ball
Fiction
April 2002
336 pages
ISBN 0-88984-238-8
$24.95
lampooning the wannabe
local art scene
and the emerging
city's sudden hunger
for global applause,
circa 1967.'
Dan Smith,
The Toronto Star
Back Flip
Anne Denoon
Back Flip is set in Toronto, in 1967. The title refers to a painting by a
young artist, Eddie O'Hara. When it is selected for a prestigious exhibition
organized by a visiting English curator, it becomes the focus of a power
struggle between Eddie and his dealer, the passionate and paranoid Bruno
Gonzaga. After the painting mysteriously disappears, O'Hara makes a copy and
complications quickly ensue, raising questions of authenticity and
ownership.
Much of the action derives from the competing delusions and deceits of the
group of artists, dealers, critics and collectors who surround O'Hara and
Gonzaga. A social comedy of errors and a study of wishful thinking, Back
Flip ends with a flash-forward to the year 2000 that brings readers up to
date with its characters' subsequent lives and, in some cases, deaths.
'The ensemble cast of this first novel ... is ... constantly on the make - for
sex, social advantage, financial gain or some combination thereof. In other
words, they're exceedingly entertaining.... The moral of the story is that
there isn't any - and that's part of the wicked charm of this satirical romp,
which mixes insights on the politics of influence and of intimacy with a
gossipy, buoyant insouciance.' Barbara Carey, The Toronto Star
'The Sixties, though much written about, are not easy to get right in
fiction or film.... What Denoon brings to the mix is what was missing at the
time: wisdom.... [Her] portrait of the tight, incestuous world that formed
the Toronto art scene in '67 thoughtfully skewers it, while magically
bringing it to life.' Nancy Wigston, Books in Canada
'Toronto visual artists and mavens who came of age in the late 1960s will
likely find Anne Denoon's first novel a delight - when they're not cringing at
its satiric pricks.... Gender disparities and furtive sex-capades are
recurring motifs, pursued with a keen, sometimes touching eye for the
ridiculous.' Jim Bartley, The Globe and Mail
'Denoon does a remarkable job of mixing and matching her creations ... as assignations go wrong and flirtatious behaviours and sexual innuendoes are misinterpreted.... There is a forgery, a painting is vandalized, there are at least two deaths, and the pretentious art community is wickedly satirized in an entertaining manner.' W.P. Kinsella, Books in Canada
'The novel explores, perhaps explodes is a better term, the idea of value in art by playing a kind of mystery with a painting and its copy. Egotistical artists make for good stories, and this novel is no exception.' Antanas Sileika, CBC Hot Type
'Anne Denoon really knows how to take you back.... [She] is skilled at
evoking the time and place.... Denoon also knows something about art, how
it's dealt, how talent often doesn't matter and how success can be based on
a fluke. Definite fun.' Susan G. Cole, Now
Photo by Richard Magder