Patrick Blennerhassett, author of Monument.

Credit: supplied

BOOKS: The highs and hos of a hockey has-been

Twenty-six-year-old Victoria News reporter Patrick Blennerhassett credits time spent away from bars during a 10-month drinking moratorium for the existence of his first novel, Monument. The story of Seth Wilhelm, a frustrated 6’3” former junior hockey star who drinks, drugs and screws around Vancouver, Monument is something of a testament to the life once led by the 6’3” hockey-playing author and his friends as they negotiated the no-man’s land between adolescence and adulthood. WE spoke with Blennerhassett about angry young men, hockey worship, misogyny, his former stomping grounds, and where he thinks he’s headed next. |

Do you think of Seth as a classic antihero in the mould of, say, The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caufield, or is he just an angry guy living his life like so many other ‘angry young men’ out there?
I’m a big fan of antiheroes. It’s tough to try and place Seth and Holden in the same breath, but yeah, Seth is most definitely an angry young man, and if people want to see him as an antihero, I’m all for it. I just wanted to tell his story and let the reader draw their own conclusions, be they positive or negative. He’s also very much just a reflection of myself; I’ve lived through a lot of the things Seth lived through, and it does something to you — it makes you jaded, cold, hard, makes you want to lash out at life. And alcohol, drugs, violence, and women just kind of offer themselves up as an easy outlet.

Do you think Seth’s love for hockey is partly responsible for his anger, or do you think it’s the one thing that has saved him from self-destruction?
It saves him, but also facilitates a world where you can solve your problems with violence: “Don’t like somebody? Drop the gloves or pound him into the boards.” Seth isn’t lost on the ice like he is in the world; he knows exactly where he fits in when the puck drops, but he also feels a deep-seated pain about the game of hockey. It was his dream to play pro, and it was taken away from him. Some people don’t realize, for every Joe Sakic there’s literally hundreds of kids who get the same chance and blow it, or get injured, or get stuck with a bad rap from a scout or coach, and piss away their career in the minors or in Europe. But you never read many stories about them in the sports section of Chapters.

For all of his antisocial behaviour, Seth has a strong, if somewhat skewed, sense of honour. Why is that?
That was the most important part of [Seth] for me. Here’s this guy, a total asshole in everyday life, but when it comes down to it, at the most important moment in his young existence, he sacrifices himself for another. He does something truly monumental. A fellow reporter I work with read it, and she said that scene shook her. She couldn’t just write off Seth as a jerk — it forced her to feel torn about someone whom she wanted to paint as a villain.

Do you think female readers might be offended by Monument?
I can say from direct experience, yes, women have been offended, and I’m sorry. By no means was I trying to glamourize Seth’s lifestyle, and I don’t think I did. I hope the women who read the book realize the female characters are seen through Seth’s eyes. They’re nothing like he paints them to be. I think each female in the book ends up learning something — albeit not through very positive circumstances — about the type of man they gravitate towards. They’re not victims by any means; they obviously have their own problems to sort out.

For Vancouver readers, the geographic reference points are evocative, but you often use generic descriptors. Why not name specific places?
Part of me just didn’t want to make it a novel about Vancouver, because it’s not. I could’ve set this book in Calgary, Winnipeg, or even Toronto. I wanted the focus to be on Seth and his story, and if I started rambling off about the Downtown Eastside or the mess that is Granville Street after dark, it might sound preachy or contrived. I’m young and I don’t think I yet have the right to comment [on] a city [like] Vancouver. Maybe when I’m older and have a bit more perspective.

In terms of a second novel, I understand right now you don’t feel that there’s anything for you to write about. Is that true?
I’m not sure. I started a second book, and it revolves around the journalism world, but now it’s actually morphed into a script which I’m sure will never get made into a movie. I’m writing continuously, and have been before and after Monument. It’s just Monument came out in book form, or roughly book form, and I started to direct my writing. But, yeah, other than a completed, unpublished book of poetry and that movie script, I have no idea whether or not another novel will come out of me anytime soon.