2001 edition

Not sure what I should say about this book. First and foremost, I wouldn't recommend it to just anyone. It's off-beat and the characters really aren't likable. However, there was something about the book that kept me reading. The main character, Saul, is the child of the St. Pierres, a Canadian folk duo who were famous during the 60's-70's, but fell into relative obscurity after Helena, Saul's mother, walked off the stage one night and never came back. When the duo's most famous song, Bushmill's Threnody, resurfaces as a sample on a German rap group's popular song, the St. Pierres are once again thrust into the spotlight--a twist of fate that the fragile Helena, now living in Thailand and working at a mission, can't handle and it's not long before Saul learns of her suicide. Saul is a shiftless, smart aleck teenager who has difficulty coming to terms with who his mother was and who his father really is. The book has some funny moments, but it's not as humorous as I expected it to be. Also irritating is Saul's first person point of view that lapses into long-winded descriptions of people and everything else around him. It just seems inconsistent with his character, as it's presented in the opening chapters. ( )