Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Fiction Literary

Something Drastic

by (author) Colleen Curran

Publisher
Goose Lane Editions
Initial publish date
Oct 1995
Category
Literary, Humorous
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780864921710
    Publish Date
    Oct 1995
    List Price
    $16.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

Something Drastic is a first-rate comedy wrapped in a clever story starring eccentrics galore. When her boyfriend dumps her, Lenore writes long letters to him while her own life takes her on a roller coaster of emotions and events.

About the author

Montreal playwright and performer Colleen Curran is the author of many popular dramas for theatre and radio. Her first novel, Something Drastic, was a finalist for the first Prix Parizeau, and Nicola Cavendish's reading of it is a perennial favourite on CBC Radio's Between the Covers.

Colleen Curran's profile page

User Reviews

Something Drastic

This is a hilarious epistolary novel set in Montreal, by a dramatist with a fine sense of timing. I love main character Lenore, who goes on a journey of self-discovery after her boyfriend leaves her on Boxing Day.

Lenore awakens to the emergent feminism that is all around her (thanks mainly to her upstairs tenant, Concordia professor Heidi Flynn) and gets involved in all sorts of activities. She begins to develop friends of her own and make decisions based on her own desires. Despite this earnest description, this book is so very funny. Even upon rereading I've laughed each time.

I love epistolary novels, and this one is a reliably entertaining choice. I think it has been unjustly overlooked as a great Canadian read!

Related lists