The Porcupine's Quill
Celebrating forty years on the Main Street
of Erin Village, Wellington County
BOOKS IN PRINT
Back Flip by Anne Denoon
Denoon has a ball lampooning the wannabe local art scene and the emerging city’s sudden hunger for global applause, circa 1967.
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.
Review quote
‘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, Toronto Star
Review quote
‘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
Review quote
‘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, Globe & Mail
Review quote
‘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
Review quote
‘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
Review quote
‘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
Anne Denoon was born in Toronto. During the 1960s she studied art history at the University of Toronto, and returned in 1980 to complete her degree. For most of the 1970s she lived in France, the Netherlands and England. She has worked in both public and commercial art galleries, and from 1986 to 1995 was a frequent contributor of reviews and articles to Books in Canada. Back Flip is her first novel.
The Porcupine's Quill would like to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. The financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) is also gratefully acknowledged.
