What’cha Readin’? Maintenance by Rob Benvie

After a series of biographies, we’re finally onto a novel in this book club: our selection for August is the compelling Maintenance by Montreal’s Rob Benvie. You can win a copy on this here blog.

If his name sounds familiar, it’s because Benvie co-founded the mighty Halifax pop-rock quartet Thrush Hermit when he was a teenager and, along with the band's mentors in Sloan, helped alter the Canadian music landscape. Benvie’s gone on to play guitar in the Dears, tend to a solo project called Tigre Benvie and he just released an electro-pop party record with his Hermit bandmate Ian McGettigan, under the banner Camouflage Nights.

Benvie’s also an accomplished writer whose previous novel is the dense Safety of War, which was published in 2004. His latest novel, Maintenance, came out last year and it’s about a seemingly normal suburban family enduring the summer of 1999, with its heat and Y2K. They all have emotional baggage and their lives have reached a pivotal, transitional state. I’m a few chapters in already and I’ve been exposed to at least one hapless crime. I’m not sure yet if I’m gonna like these people, but I’m enjoying reading about them thus far.

I have copies of Maintenance to offer 10 people (not employed by the CBC) who check out this excerpt of the book and post thoughtful questions for Benvie about it below. I'm due to interview him soon, and I'd be happy to ask him a good question from you. Oh, and I’ll let you know if your question was deemed a winner (you can only win once, BTW), so check back here for a response. If you do win, please send your name (real and blog), mailing address and winning answer to rock@cbc.ca with “Y2K People Problems” in the subject line.

Are you a fan of Rob Benvie's music? Have you read any of his writing? Are you excited about reading Maintenance? Otherwise, what'cha readin'?