Blazing Literati

The four central characters in Corey Redekop’s invigorating first novel are bibliognostic bibliophiles, bibliomaniacal and bibliophagic, who work for a bibliopole and indulge in biblioclasm. They probably read the LRC. They labour in the mega-bookstore READ (pronounced both “reed” and “red,” possibly depending on whether you are going in or coming out), an Indigo/Chapters warehouse of soulless commercialism in Winnipeg in which the operative principle is not the value of books but the sale of books. They are also at the core of the shelf monkeys, an assortment of shop assistants, librarians, book reviewers and other social misfits described by their cultish leader Aubrey Fehr as bibliobibuli, “people who believe in the sanctity of the written word, and despise those who would abuse the privilege.” They meet on a regular basis, adopt twee literary pseudonyms (Gandalf, Offred, Queequeg), hold trials of books that any member abominates (called “montages” to recall the...