Bookworm, no. 42
Kyle Wyatt reviews Mary Ormsby’s “World’s Fastest Man*.” Caroline Noël reviews Anne Cathrine Bomann’s “Blue Notes.” Photos from “The Art of Ectoplasm.” Inside the May issue.
In the Long Run
World’s Fastest Man*: The Incredible Life of Ben Johnson
Mary Ormsby
Sutherland House
308 pages, hardcover
Many people think they know what happened after Ben Johnson broke the tape in the 100-metre final at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. The journalist Mary Ormsby, who was covering the race that day for the Toronto Star, certainly thought she did: within seventy-two hours, the twenty-six-year-old sprinter went from national hero to sports villain. Having failed a drug test, Johnson was stripped of his new world record, had his gold medal taken away, and was banned for life from Canadian competition by the federal sports minister, Jean Charest.
But as Ormsby was writing World’s Fastest Man*, she came to realize that there was much more to the story than she thought. Yes, Johnson had taken steroids for years, but did he have them in his system on race day? Besides, hadn’t most of the 100-metre finalists dabbled in banned substances, including Johnson’s American rival Carl Lewis? Why was the Canadian athlete’s fall from grace so swift, without even the chance to appeal the International Olympic Committee’s late-night ruling? And what was going on in the Korean lab that tested Johnson’s urine samples—samples that were perhaps tainted or not even his?
In taking up such questions, Ormsby makes a welcome contribution to the annals of track and field with her well-paced book, which is filled with international intrigue, narrative tension, and startling revelations. Without absolving Johnson and his disgraced coach, Charlie Francis, she does humanize them. Even readers adamantly opposed to drug cheats will sympathize with the runner from Scarborough, Ontario, for what now looks like a targeted, racially motivated miscarriage of justice, one that continues to this day. Anyone who has undergone doping control as an athlete will feel their palms get sweaty as Ormsby captures the high stakes and peculiar atmosphere of drug testing in sport. Because, like Johnson, even clean athletes know that the protocols are far from perfect.
—Kyle Wyatt
Degriefing
Blue Notes
Anne Cathrine Bomann, translated by Caroline Waight
Book*hug Press
242 pages, softcover and ebook
What if grief was a diagnosable illness that could be treated? What if the therapy had devastating consequences? Set in Denmark in the fall of 2024, Anne Cathrine Bomann’s medical thriller, Blue Notes, translated from Danish, delves into the murky ethics of the pharmaceutical industry as it underscores the strength of love in the face of loss.
The detached scientist Elisabeth Nordin has developed a drug to help her get over the tragic death of her young son, Winter. Under the supervision of a greedy corporation, Danish Pharma, she conducts human trials with a research group from Aarhus University. Callocain, the world’s first grief medication, reduces the overwhelming effects of loss by helping patients “remember their loved one less acutely, or at least in a less emotionally charged way.” Despite promising results, the medication decreases some users’ empathy to a level expected from a person “with dissocial personality disorder—a diagnosis that not so very long ago was known as psychopathy.” The eccentric psychology professor Thorsten Gjeldsted suspects that something is awry when he notices his own patients’ poor results. He recruits two graduate students—Shadi, an obsessive-compulsive loner, and Anna, a free-spirited rebel—to help him uncover Callocain’s covert side effects before it reaches the public.
With striking precision, Blue Notes reveals the sinister financial motives that often underpin big pharma. Although straightforward and plot driven, the book considers profound questions about mental illness. Since the novel’s perspective jumps between the four main characters, it encourages sympathy for Elisabeth while also denouncing her selfish actions and their devastating repercussions. In Bomann’s narrative, grief is nebulous.
—Caroline Noël
Book Tasting: The Art of Ectoplasm
In the May issue, Tom Jokinen reviews The Art of Ectoplasm, a collection of essays, pictures, and art about seances held in Winnipeg between 1923 and 1944. Here are just a handful of the many “otherworldly” photographs included in the book, edited by Serena Keshavjee.
Excerpted with permission from University of Manitoba Press.
Inside the May Issue
“Even as a baby, I’d shake my head.” Heather Ramsay recalls her adolescent eating habits.
Barry Gough’s The Curious Passage of Richard Blanshard: First Governor of Vancouver Island, reviewed by Michael Ledger-Lomas.
“Not a relaxing read.” Rose Hendrie reviews Mandy-Suzanne Wong’s The Box.
And much more!
Who’s a Good Cover?
For the third straight year, the Literary Review of Canada has been nominated for Cover Grand Prix at the National Magazine Awards. The winner will be announced on June 7. In the meantime, read more about our nominated illustrator, Blair Kelly, and his work on the November issue in Bookworm, no. 14.