Zoe Whittall’s third novel, The Best Kind of People, demarcates a pivot point for the Canadian novelist, screenwriter and poet known for her realist novels that depict queer and trans characters’ lives in Toronto and Montreal. The book follows the disintegration of an affluent all-American family in the wake of patriarch George Woodbury’s arrest for attempted rape and sexual misconduct with minors. A group of 14-year-old girls at the elite private school in New England where George, a local hero and respected teacher, works come forward with the allegations after a ski trip. Opening with George’s arrest, the story surveys the reverberations of the shocking news in the lives of those caught in its ripple effect.
As with her previous novels Bottle Rocket Hearts and Holding Still for As Long As Possible, Whittall’s interest here is in how we forge intimate...
Adèle Barclay is a writer and critic whose work has appeared in The Fiddlehead, PRISM international, The Pinch, Matrix and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2016 Lit POP Poetry Award. Her debut poetry collection, If I Were in a Cage I’d Reach Out for You, was shortlisted for the 2015 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry. She is the interviews editor for The Rusty Toque.
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