The writer Russell Smith discusses his new novel Self Care (Biblioasis, 2025), with Joseph Planta.
 |
Self Care by Russell Smith (Biblioasis, 2025).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Self Care |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
Russell Smith’s new novel Self Care is described as an examination of women and men, self-loathing and twenty-first century loneliness. I spoke to Mr. Smith recently about the new book, and its characters. There’s Gloria, a writer for an online publication that might belie her education in creative writing or journalism. It’s a reflection of the current state of media, news consumption, and literacy perhaps. She’s navigating the dating scene making questionable choices like seeing married or random men on apps. She’s fascinated by a stranger, somebody younger than her named Daryn, who is a protesting immigration, and as she soon discovers, somebody part of the incel movement. This leads to inviting him back to her apartment and dominating him sexually. This is all heading into dangerous territory, and Gloria knows this, but proceeds. This tension is what drives the book, just as it reflects life in a big city, you know, it’s full of people, yet isolating for a lot of them. Russell Smith is the author of twelve previous books of fiction, nonfiction, and translation. His fiction has been nominated for every major Canadian award, including the Giller Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Amazon First Novel Award. He is a journalist and cultural commentator, whose writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, The Walrus, and elsewhere. He was a columnist in the Globe and Mail for many years. He is also an acquiring editor at Dundurn Press. Self Care is published by Biblioasis. He joined me from Toronto, three and a half weeks ago. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Russell Smith; Mr. Smith, good morning.
The post Russell Smith first appeared on thecommentary.ca.