No Viable Option

No Viable Option is at once an unusual literary mystery with a noirish evocation of the inner city and a political satire of activist groups whose ideals are undermined by in-fighting.

On a summer evening in 1992, two young residents of a homeless shelter break into the house of legal aid lawyer, Will Burgess. He is murdered during the act and certain items are stolen. With the stolen articles in hand, one of the perpetrators, a Native youth named Sam Weir, desperately flees from both his cronies and the police (who are convinced that Sam acted alone).

Simultaneously we meet Eric Speers, an aspiring writer and worker at the charity which owns the shelter and other endeavors. It was an organization in its death throes. Eric is, as well, a mess: suffering insomnia, increasingly neurotic, confused about his course in life and broke. Together with Sandy, a niece of the murdered man, they begin to investigate the stolen items after Sandy receives a threatening phone call and the police appear uninterested. The pair are drawn into a labyrinth of secrets and crimes, and finding their way through it may be the only hope that Sam Weir has for staying alive.

Set during the severe recession of the early 90's, No Viable Option is an impassioned indictment of the failure of political groups to live up to the principles they espouse. Always entertaining with striking characters, it is an ingenious pastiche. The story is told using multiple points of view, lists, narrative, dreams, journal entries, song lyrics, newspaper columns and sex as a political metaphor.

Craig Grimes is a Canadian novelist. His works are built around stories of personal conflict which focus on ethical and political concerns. They are set in Canada and there is a strong sense of place. They are also characterized by shifting points of view and narrative form, and the inclusion of other sorts of writing to advance the action (poems, journal entries, lists, quotes, songs, etc.).