Stephen Henighan

Mr. Singh Among the Fugitives Stephen Henighan

Fiction. R. U. Singh has always known he is destined to live the life of an English country squire. After a few false starts, in Bombay, Thunder Bay, and Toronto, he settles into a comfortable existence as a small-town Ontario lawyer, much solicited for the diversity he lends committees and conclaves. But--lest he forget--he is accepted only at the whim of his woman in white, a commanding university administrator, and by her whim can also fall. MR SINGH AMONG THE FUGITIVES sends up the multicultural aspirations of Canadian identity, pokes fun at our glitterati, and, tongue firmly in cheek, issues a warning: be careful who you pretend to be.

The bite in Henighan's satire comes from his observation that Mr. Singh has come to exactly the right place: The CanLit establishment, after all, is still very much stuck in the 19th century. The mandarins of culture rule over what is symbolized with a cosy garden party that Mr. Singh crashes by stepping through a hedge... What makes Henighan's satire work is its measured tone and ambiguity. His representation of the cultural elite as lazy and complacent, corrupt and entitled, greedy, hypocritical, privileged and vindictive, is unmistakably fierce, but it's presented in a reserved manner that allows for subtle moral shadings.--Alex Good, Toronto Star