In the Same Mould

Andrew F. Sullivan’s The Marigold features a brief epigraph attributed to Rob Ford: “Everything is fine.” Those three words would be a lot more convincing coming from Jane Jacobs or perhaps even Drake, but coming from the late Toronto mayor, they smack of comedy, irony, and foreboding.

Unfolding in the near future, this portrait of a municipal dystopia centres on climate-ravaged Hogtown, pockmarked by construction sites and prone to flooding. Transit is a malodorous mess, with subway riders “slipping past soaked commuters and the homeless” and the infrequent streetcar “running without an operator, stupid enough to almost drown itself under the Dundas underpass.” Mismanaged and underfunded, the city has offloaded many services to Threshold, a powerful data brokerage that subjects citizens to increasing levels of surveillance. All the while, a toxic mould known as the Wet is...