Novelist, journalist, and playwright Rick Salutin takes us into the world of his protagonist, Max - economist, leftist, and reluctant but incorrigible womanizer.
Max's amorous adventures begin at the age of eight when the young Casanova finds himself running from the scene of his first crime, a surreptitious kiss on the couch with the neighbour's daughter. For the next few decades women become participants in Max's awkward and often hilarious journey to self-discovery - some willing, some reluctant, some unwitting. We follow Max from the 50s to the 90s, through shifting sexual codes and practices, from Toronto to London and Paris, and, most importantly, from one woman to another. He is doomed to repeat this history until he learns from it.
Resonant with authority, experience, and self-deprecating insight, The Womanizer explores the riddles of growing up and the discovery that we understand ourselves only through others and that our most intimate moments are clues to our true selves. "Only Rick Salutin could put Harold Innis, John Maynard Keynes and Casanova together in a novel." - The Globe and Mail
"Rick Salutin's latest novel is a delicately balanced cautionary tale that takes a serious look at society's ever-changing attitudes to sexuality. It's both lively and witty, but not as light as it might seem on first glance... [A] merry romp through the last four decades ... one seriously provocative tale." - Quill & Quire
"A panorama of sex and society ... the innocent 1950s, swinging '60s and '70s, selfish '80s and numb '90s ..." The Gazette (Montreal) Rick Salutin is a novelist, playwright and social commentator. His work has appeared often in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Life, Saturday Night magazines, and This Magazine, of which he is one of the founding editors. He is the author of many books, including Living in a Dark Age and A Man of Little Faith, which won the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada Best First Novel Award. His stage play, Les Canadiens, received the Chalmers Award for Best Canadian Play and he has won a National Newspaper Award for his work in The Globe and Mail. He is the recipient of the 1991 Toronto Arts Award in writing and publishing. Rick Salutin lives in Toronto. And we are put on earth a little space
That we may learn to bear the beams of love.
- William Blake
Part I: Trigger Had a Hard-on
Let's consider the little Casanova at age eight, he thinks, as he steps from the last stair of the porch onto the pavement. Yes, that will do for a start. Amazing how sometimes all it takes is that moment when your foot hits the street for thought to flow, the muddle clears and the problem resolves. It's a good enough reason to walk, as he always has. Same walk, same route, only the years have passed. Many years to be sure. Sometimes you think you've got it right at last, so why not try a different route, which he occasionally does; on the other hand, there's always more to learn from where you've already been.
He guesstimates he's walked this route ten thousand times and the returns might be diminishing, though he hasn't done a cost-benefit analysis. Sometimes he varies it, but never for long. Does that mean he lacks imagination? No one ever accused people in his field of being creative. But human beings take the same walk because they're repetitive and obsessive, it's their nature and has its reasons. You travel the same block because you haven't solved its puzzle yet. Walk it again once more and it may finally yield its secret. Then you can move on to another route, different problem. Once he thought the sole purpose of these walks was to meet somebody, and often he did. Now, he thinks it's to solve the puzzle, whatever it is. So keep walking.
Of course now he's walking mainly for cardiac purposes, and with care, nitro puffer in his pocket, just in case. After the operation he'll get down to serous cardiac walkin
