This was a CBC Canada Reads book. Read for a book club - comments to follow.
We picked this from CBC's Canada Reads List for 2014. It was also a finalist for several prestigious awards when released in 2008, so seemed a good choice. We were disappointed.
Cockroach is a story about a young Iranian immigrant, and his struggles - initially in war torn Iran and now in Montreal. After a stranger saves him from suicide, we follow his life as voyeurs, via his sessions with a well meaning but naive therapist. He is a voyeur too, obsessively following people as he scuttles around the city, in search of his identity. He's a petty thief and a sneak, and not really that likeable. The imagery is very graphic, too much so in places, as it pushes the metaphor of a cockroach theme and its unsavoury environment. This story has a narrow focus on a psychologically damaged person, and on a portrait of madness - interesting in places, but unsettling. We didn't feel this was a good representation of life in Canada, and wondered if good literature now has to be about bad things to be considered good drama. We gave this a 2.