One reviewer has dubbed Guy Babineau as being representative of a new genre of 'aggressively urban' Canadian fiction. The eight sardonic stories in Channel Surfing in the Sea of Happiness (Gutter $14.95) are concerned with manners and gay identity politics. For instance, two maladroits in one story escape recession-riddled Toronto in a convertible, high-tailing it for post-Gulf War Chicago where they encounter sex and architecture in a society distorted by pop culture. 1-896356-21-4

[BCBW AUTUMN 1999]