A review by bitterindigo
The Optimists by Andrew Miller

3.0

I almost gave up after the first couple of chapters, probably chiefly because I was comparing it to Ingenious Pain, which is in my top ten of all time. It was a case of 'yes, yes, he's a photographer, he's witnessed atrocities, he's come home all scarred and disenchanted, wanders around, has an unsatisfying visit with a prostitute (duh) - anything else?' And yet, in telling the story of a man who thinks that to go on living is impossible and then proves himself wrong by, in fact, going on living ('I can't go on, I'll go on'), it ends up working. Also, there's the enjoyable touch of his friend Silverman who finds redemption by feeding the homeless in the 'bleakness' of Canada (the wild colonial wastelands of Toronto). It's still not nearly as good as Ingenious Pain - but what's going to be, right?