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miramichireader's review
4.0
Drive-by Saviours is like two novels in one. Each character's story could have been told with the other character relegated to a minor role in the narrative. Bumi's story is told right from the day of his birth but Mark's story unfolds in a different way; starting in the present day, with occasional flashbacks to fill in the gaps in his life story. Bumi has been in Toronto for some time before he and Mark meet on the TTC in chapter 17, almost at the exact halfway point in the book. Thereafter, they quickly become friends.
Both Mark and Bumi are dealing with a plethora of complex problems that complicate their lives: Obsessive-compulsive Disease (OCD), unfulfilling work/careers, estranged family members, bad memories from the past, physical and psychological torture, even (in Mark's case) the plight of exploited Mexican migrant farm workers just to name a few. While Bumi struggles in oppressive Indonesia, Mark (who would appear to be living the idyllic life to many, Sarah even works as a catalogue model!) struggles to cope in ways that only someone from the Western world would understand, especially not wanting anything to do with family issues. So while there are obvious dissimilarities in their characters, there are still some common things they share, such as dealing with OCD tendencies and trying to understand them. Mark, seeing Bumi act in ways his sister did, is helped to recognize the disease, then seeks to reach out to his sister living on the west coast. Thus, in a way, Bumi acts as a 'drive-by saviour' to Mark, for soon thereafter he is suddenly deported from Canada and pulled out of Mark's life while he is out west trying to reconcile with his sister Michelle.
You can read the entire review here at my site: http://miramichireader.ca
Both Mark and Bumi are dealing with a plethora of complex problems that complicate their lives: Obsessive-compulsive Disease (OCD), unfulfilling work/careers, estranged family members, bad memories from the past, physical and psychological torture, even (in Mark's case) the plight of exploited Mexican migrant farm workers just to name a few. While Bumi struggles in oppressive Indonesia, Mark (who would appear to be living the idyllic life to many, Sarah even works as a catalogue model!) struggles to cope in ways that only someone from the Western world would understand, especially not wanting anything to do with family issues. So while there are obvious dissimilarities in their characters, there are still some common things they share, such as dealing with OCD tendencies and trying to understand them. Mark, seeing Bumi act in ways his sister did, is helped to recognize the disease, then seeks to reach out to his sister living on the west coast. Thus, in a way, Bumi acts as a 'drive-by saviour' to Mark, for soon thereafter he is suddenly deported from Canada and pulled out of Mark's life while he is out west trying to reconcile with his sister Michelle.
You can read the entire review here at my site: http://miramichireader.ca
the_original_shelf_monkey's review
4.0
It doesn't take a genius to see that these two men will cross paths, and it's a tribute to Benjamin's talent as a writer that the trek to that point is almost sheer pleasure. Perhaps by necessity, Bumi's tale is far more interesting, and Benjamin pulls off the neat trick of taking a potentially dark tale and never succumbing to despair. Bumi's life is harsh, but the bleakness never overwhelms either Bumi or the reader. Mark's life, likely more familiar to the average North American reader, is more comfortable than Bumi's, but his life too is full of pitfalls and disappointments. Benjamin is working with a universal theme here, the idea that happiness comes from within, and it is how we strive against obstacles that defines us. It's a far more palatable motif than the aforementioned theme of 'let's help those who cannot help themselves and feel better about ourselves as a result.'
Read the rest of the review here.
Read the rest of the review here.
jooniperd's review
4.0
Hmm, pondering on this one for a bit. I would give this novel 3 1/2 stars, if that was possible on GR.
From the cover description:
Demoralized by his job and dissatisfied with his life, Mark punches the clock with increasing indifference. He wanted to help people; he’d always believed that as social worker he would be able to make a difference in people’s lives. But after six years of bureaucracy and pushing paper Mark has lost hope.
All that changes when he meets Bumi, an Indonesian restaurant worker. Moved from his small fishing village and sent to a residential school under the authoritarian Suharto regime, Bumi’s radical genius and obsessive-compulsive disorder raise suspicion among his paranoid neighbours. When several local children die mysteriously the neighbours fear reaches a fevered pitch and Bumi is forced to flee to Canada.
Brought together by a chance encounter on the bus, Mark and Bumi develop a friendship that forces them to confront their pasts. Moving gracefully between Canada and Indonesia and through the two men’s histories, Drive-by Saviours is the story of desire and connection among lonely people adrift in a crowded world.
Okay, so this is what I have come up with:
This novel is Chris Benjamin’s debut work and is brought to readers via Roseway Publishing, a small Nova Scotia-based publisher that “…aims to publish literary work that is rooted in and relevant to struggles for social justice.” Roseway was acquired by Fernwood Publishing, also based in Nova Scotia, in 2006. Fernwood operates under a unique principle:“…to provide authentic opportunities to first time authors and to groups who are often silent or silenced in today’s media. We are not afraid to take risks in this regard and, because of our confidence in the quality of the work we choose to publish, many of our first time authors remain with us throughout their publishing career.” Armed with these two pieces of information, I can understand why the publisher was drawn to Benjamin’s meaningful new novel.
Chris Benjamin has, to this point, led a varied and interesting life and it feels as though he has drawn from all of these aspects in creating a memorable work. While not a social worker, Benjamin did have the opportunity, during his time living in Toronto, to work with immigrants new to the country. He was drawn to people who had come to Canada, willing to start life over again. In a recent interview with Arts East magazine, Benjamin described it like this:
“The stories I heard from new Canadians blew me away. These were people who – by choice or not – picked up their entire lives, everything they’d ever known, and relocated on another planet – a cold planet. I’d lived abroad a fair bit but seeing these folks out of their cultural context, trying to rebuild their lives from scratch, I wanted to write about that.”
I read Drive-By Saviours quickly, beginning it this past Sunday and finishing last evening. It was a book I had trouble stepping away from, or even finding moments within where I felt comfortable taking a break. I was so keen to follow the path Benjamin was taking me down. We are introduced to Bumi first, in chapter one, on the day of his birth on Rilaka, an Indonesian island. We meet Mark, in Toronto, at the start of the second chapter. Mark looks back on his younger years, and career trajectory then tells us he was “content by 25″. Going forward, the novel alternates chapters, with each character having their own arc and unique timbre. Each young man is on a different course – Bumi’s complicated by the regime of Suharto and undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and Mark’s fraught with emotional personal entanglements that lead to choices of self-sabotage.
We know these two characters will, eventually, cross paths and that the resulting relationship will change both of their lives. With each of these young men, and with the novel as a whole, I have been left with the feeling Benjamin has written a novel about the importance of personal connection with others. The author offers us contrasting views of relationships, with all of the complexities these entail. Bumi, though less fortunate because of political impositions on personal freedoms, has a wife and daughter he loves, then loses. Marc, with all of the advantages the Western world has to offer, has a common-law relationship with his girlfriend that is on the decline and barely any relationship with his own family.
Benjamin underscores his study in humanity with a theme of social justice (or injustices) while informing readers about OCD. Ideas this big could have proved labyrinthine, but Benjamin is a deft guide and as a reader I never felt as though he was preaching or cloaking his personal feelings under the guise of fiction. The characters of Mark and Bumi are so well developed that you can’t help but feel empathy for them. For Bumi, in particular, I marveled at his strength and determination. I only have two minor criticisms of Drive-By Saviours. First, perhaps the background story about Mark’s family – particularly the relationship with his sister Michelle – could have been addressed more thoroughly earlier on. For me, the depth of their troubled relationship was not strongly evident until Mark tried to reengage with Michelle. Second, Bumi’s ocean travel seemed a bit tidy. These are so minor though, and I mention them only because I ended up curious about several things within the story, once I had finished the novel.
Overall, Drive-By Saviours is a very strong debut and Benjamin has some serious writerly chops. I look forward to his next novel, which he hopes to release in 2012.
From the cover description:
Demoralized by his job and dissatisfied with his life, Mark punches the clock with increasing indifference. He wanted to help people; he’d always believed that as social worker he would be able to make a difference in people’s lives. But after six years of bureaucracy and pushing paper Mark has lost hope.
All that changes when he meets Bumi, an Indonesian restaurant worker. Moved from his small fishing village and sent to a residential school under the authoritarian Suharto regime, Bumi’s radical genius and obsessive-compulsive disorder raise suspicion among his paranoid neighbours. When several local children die mysteriously the neighbours fear reaches a fevered pitch and Bumi is forced to flee to Canada.
Brought together by a chance encounter on the bus, Mark and Bumi develop a friendship that forces them to confront their pasts. Moving gracefully between Canada and Indonesia and through the two men’s histories, Drive-by Saviours is the story of desire and connection among lonely people adrift in a crowded world.
Okay, so this is what I have come up with:
This novel is Chris Benjamin’s debut work and is brought to readers via Roseway Publishing, a small Nova Scotia-based publisher that “…aims to publish literary work that is rooted in and relevant to struggles for social justice.” Roseway was acquired by Fernwood Publishing, also based in Nova Scotia, in 2006. Fernwood operates under a unique principle:“…to provide authentic opportunities to first time authors and to groups who are often silent or silenced in today’s media. We are not afraid to take risks in this regard and, because of our confidence in the quality of the work we choose to publish, many of our first time authors remain with us throughout their publishing career.” Armed with these two pieces of information, I can understand why the publisher was drawn to Benjamin’s meaningful new novel.
Chris Benjamin has, to this point, led a varied and interesting life and it feels as though he has drawn from all of these aspects in creating a memorable work. While not a social worker, Benjamin did have the opportunity, during his time living in Toronto, to work with immigrants new to the country. He was drawn to people who had come to Canada, willing to start life over again. In a recent interview with Arts East magazine, Benjamin described it like this:
“The stories I heard from new Canadians blew me away. These were people who – by choice or not – picked up their entire lives, everything they’d ever known, and relocated on another planet – a cold planet. I’d lived abroad a fair bit but seeing these folks out of their cultural context, trying to rebuild their lives from scratch, I wanted to write about that.”
I read Drive-By Saviours quickly, beginning it this past Sunday and finishing last evening. It was a book I had trouble stepping away from, or even finding moments within where I felt comfortable taking a break. I was so keen to follow the path Benjamin was taking me down. We are introduced to Bumi first, in chapter one, on the day of his birth on Rilaka, an Indonesian island. We meet Mark, in Toronto, at the start of the second chapter. Mark looks back on his younger years, and career trajectory then tells us he was “content by 25″. Going forward, the novel alternates chapters, with each character having their own arc and unique timbre. Each young man is on a different course – Bumi’s complicated by the regime of Suharto and undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and Mark’s fraught with emotional personal entanglements that lead to choices of self-sabotage.
We know these two characters will, eventually, cross paths and that the resulting relationship will change both of their lives. With each of these young men, and with the novel as a whole, I have been left with the feeling Benjamin has written a novel about the importance of personal connection with others. The author offers us contrasting views of relationships, with all of the complexities these entail. Bumi, though less fortunate because of political impositions on personal freedoms, has a wife and daughter he loves, then loses. Marc, with all of the advantages the Western world has to offer, has a common-law relationship with his girlfriend that is on the decline and barely any relationship with his own family.
Benjamin underscores his study in humanity with a theme of social justice (or injustices) while informing readers about OCD. Ideas this big could have proved labyrinthine, but Benjamin is a deft guide and as a reader I never felt as though he was preaching or cloaking his personal feelings under the guise of fiction. The characters of Mark and Bumi are so well developed that you can’t help but feel empathy for them. For Bumi, in particular, I marveled at his strength and determination. I only have two minor criticisms of Drive-By Saviours. First, perhaps the background story about Mark’s family – particularly the relationship with his sister Michelle – could have been addressed more thoroughly earlier on. For me, the depth of their troubled relationship was not strongly evident until Mark tried to reengage with Michelle. Second, Bumi’s ocean travel seemed a bit tidy. These are so minor though, and I mention them only because I ended up curious about several things within the story, once I had finished the novel.
Overall, Drive-By Saviours is a very strong debut and Benjamin has some serious writerly chops. I look forward to his next novel, which he hopes to release in 2012.
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