‘He had excused himself from the world without reluctance, remorse, or the sense that his time on Earth had held a shred of redemptive value.’
Enter the life of John Richter. Discharged from the Canadian military due to a base closure and locked out of gainful employment because of affirmative action, he stews in resentment at the immigrants, gays, and uppity women taking over his beloved country. When Richter takes a job as a rat exterminator following a garbage workers’ strike, his self-delusion, mental illness, and rage at the world lead him down a path to infamy and self-destruction.
Set against the backdrop of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Guttersnipe is a piercing examination of progressivism, multiculturalism, and white male entitlement. Jay Black’s debut novella is an uncomfortable look at the men who fall through the cracks and how society’s failures can turn the mentally ill into monsters.
Originally published by Black Ink Books in 2004, Guttersnipe was the subject of a hate speech investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This edition of the book includes an afterword by Black reflecting on the RCMP investigation and his motivations for writing the novella.
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Chapter 1: Dossier
Chapter 2: Lucky Day
Chapter 3: Career Opportunities
Chapter 4: Desert Rat
Chapter 5: First Night Jitters and Not-So-Crispy Critters
Chapter 6: Veteran Know-How
Chapter 7: Citius, Altius, Fortius
Chapter 8: Come to Papa
Chapter 9: Get Your Facts Straight
Chapter 10: One Shot
Chapter 11: Five-0 at 0500
Chapter 12: The Choices We Make
Chapter 13: Think Fast!
Chapter 14: Shoot the Moon
Chapter 15: Chill, Bro!
Chapter 16: Goodbye, Rat Race
Chapter 17: Cruisin’ for a Bruisin’
Chapter 18: Last Supper
Chapter 19: The Defence Rests
Chapter 20: UBC or Bust
Chapter 21: A Day in the Sun
Chapter 22: Coup de Grace
Chapter 23: Tunnel Vision
Afterword
Postscript