The Boulevard
Jerrod Edson
Galleon Books, 2023
Review by Steven Mayoff
On a train trip through Hell’s outer reaches to find Vincent Van Gogh, the Devil tells Ernest Hemingway about when God banished him and his angelic cohort from the vibrant gardens of Heaven to the gloomy depths of Hell. This is the tantalizing premise of Jerrod Edson’s engaging and witty new novel of magic realism, The Boulevard.
In the book’s epigraph, Edson’s fictional version of Hemingway says: “Art lights the world. And everyone in it.” Edson would have us believe this is also true of the Underworld, or at least a stretch of Hell’s downtown known as the Boulevard.
In The Boulevard, art is not merely decorative but the essence of life. In Heaven, the light emanating from the flowers in its gardens so enthralls Lucifer and his friends that they resort to picking some. It is an act strictly forbidden by God, and so Edson seems to be drawing a connection between beauty and rebellion. The vital need to express one’s interpretation of beauty is explored in his depiction of Vincent Van Gogh, which takes up much of the narrative. Although Van Gogh tried to create art that would sell commercially, his need to paint how he saw the world was greater than his desire to conform to the artistic norms of his day. Following one’s vision is always an act of rebellion.
Edson’s use of the classic frame narrative is what struck me most about the novel. I rarely see the ‘story within a story’ structure in today’s fiction and I find it adds depth to a story to have multiple narratives. Readers of landmark speculative fiction, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, will enjoy the complex plot and intertextuality of The Boulevard.
The inciting incident, an email alerting Satan that Hell will soon be graced by a visit from God, causes a panic regarding the Boulevard’s makeover of luminescent floral murals by Vincent Van Gogh. This beautification is sure to incur the Creator’s wrath since it would seem to be a vain attempt to recreate Hell in Heaven’s image. Yet, in the scope of the novel, this conflict seems to be secondary. For the majority of the narrative, Satan recounts his history with Van Gogh to Hemingway. Satan describes how, as Vincent progressed as an artist, the demon launched into a methodical campaign to enlist the man who created breathtaking irises and blazing sunflowers to recreate Hell in Heaven’s image, to give the Boulevard a floral makeover.
The novel is a page-turner, but I have to confess that I wondered if the inciting incident was necessary at all. Happily, I can report that Edson ties up the seemingly secondary events in a satisfactory way without giving us too neat of an ending. There is another brief but satirical subplot that involves Al Capone being contracted to destroy the floral murals that line the Boulevard in preparation for God’s arrival. The aim is to avoid His wrath in witnessing Heaven being mocked. This plan of destruction threatens to turn Satan’s flowery urban ideal into a literal Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
The Satan that Edson presents to us reminded me of the one Mick Jagger sang of in “Sympathy for the Devil,” a man of wealth and taste. Meanwhile, Papa Hemingway displays all the bluster and bravado we would expect from the author of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. Edson paints him in broad strokes, evoking the macho larger-than-life figure we all know from legend. He is all too happy to avail himself of the train’s well-stocked bar as he listens attentively to Satan’s unfolding narrative, and later on, helps himself to Satan’s stash of weed. And yet he also displays gentleness and compassion toward his host, “Satan stepped into the car, dressed in a sheer black suit, black shirt, and black tie. Too weak to stand on his own, he braced himself against the wall. Hemingway grabbed him by the arm and swung it around his shoulder. When Satan’s legs went limp, Hemingway simply picked him up as if he were a child. It was like carrying a skeleton.”
We get a rarely-seen vulnerable side of Satan as we witness signs of his failing health. In retrospect, I see this as Edson’s way of foreshadowing the sombre tone of Satan’s meeting with Van Gogh near the book’s end. I found the stark portrayal of Vincent’s afterlife to be moving and thought-provoking. It both saddened and inspired me.
It is my understanding that Edson’s previous five books are more steeped in realism and take place in his native St. John, New Brunswick, making The Boulevard his first foray into speculative fiction. Although at times he plays fast and loose with historical or cultural information we may know about these characters, his imagination and passion for them bring a wealth of humanity and humour to the form. In Edson’s speculative fictional world, Satan and Hemingway are just a couple of old war horses making themselves at home in any hell-bound train they happen to find themselves in.
I should note that this novel is the inaugural offering of a fledgling publishing company in Moncton, New Brunswick called Galleon Books, which is dedicated to publishing Atlantic Canadian authors and is the brainchild of writer and freelance editor, Lee Thompson.
Any reader who has an interest in art history, theology, and literature will be spellbound by the way Edson integrates them into the compelling magical realism of The Boulevard.
Steven Mayoff is a novelist, poet, and lyricist. Originally from Montreal, he has made his home on Prince Edward Island since 2001. His most recent novel is The Island Gospel According to Samson Grief, published by Radiant Press in 2023. As a librettist, he is also the co-creator (with composer Ted Dykstra) of Dion: A Rock Opera, a musical reimagining of The Bacchae by Euripides, which received its world premiere at the Coal Mine Theatre in Toronto in February 2024. His website is https://www.stevenmayoff.ca.