Hugh Made Me Love You

The first thing to note about Marina Endicott’s Close to Hugh is the book’s voice, which is alive with impish humour, a deep reservoir of humanity and a gift for quirky, evocative phrasing. These have always been strengths of this Edmonton-based writer’s work, even in her first novel, the straightforward first-person Open Arms, but in Close to Hugh, her fourth novel, she has taken things to another level: it is more droll, more insightful and even better crafted than its predecessors. Every sentence in this book made me want to read the next one.

The wondrous thing is that Endicott employs this distinctive voice entirely in the service of her characters, a collection of students, teachers, actors, artists and other vivid creative types living in Peterborough, Ontario. The sections of the novel featuring the eponymous Hugh Argylle—an art gallery owner—are not written in the same style or tone as those sections about, say, Elle, the teenaged...