I have very mixed feelings about this. I think I love the setting, the backdrop — Toronto in the late 70s, the ROM and the planetarium, the RCMP scandals, and Quebec separatism. I enjoy Lesje, the palaeontologist, and her struggles to catalogue and preserve everything and everyone around her. But, I just can’t relate or bring myself to care much about the plot. It’s just a bunch of straight people sleeping in each other’s beds and whining about children, and mothers, and grandparents.

Maybe when it was published, the kinds of relationships the book describes were somewhat scandalous or titillating, but I don’t think it’s aged well. At least not for me. Maybe other people can see themselves reflected in these characters more than I can.