The Slip

September 29, 2014
"This will hurt immensely," a brutal doctor tells Korean teenager Meiko in his office at a so-called comfort station in northeastern China circa 1943. In order to cure the girl of a sexually transmitted disease from the Japanese soldiers that rape and torture her each and every day, the doctor's about to inject Meiko with an arsenic compound that causes painful side-effects. The harrowing and deeply moving sections of Sampson's (Off Book) sophomore novel describe the traumatized life of Meiko, born Eun-young, as she survives atrocities and spends later decades "barren as a rock" as well as mutely suffering, poor and ashamed, on the margins of conservative, male-dominated Korean society. Alternating but equally engaging chapters describe Michael, a disgraced journalist from Halifax fleeing personal failures and squandered opportunities while "slinging English like hamburgers" at ABC English Planet, a rigid ESL school in neon-lit Seoul. Quiet and thoughtful, he wrestles his own demons as he observes the questionable antics of his fellow male teachers, who regard the young women of Seoul in the early 2000s as gifts to open and discard. Michael's awkward romance with Jin, a relative of Eun-young, bridges the two eras and gives the author ample opportunity to illustrate the enduring consequences of history.

April 3, 2017
Early in the riotous but astute third novel by Sampson (Sad Peninsula), readers will see that renowned philosophy professor and public intellectual Philip Sharpe is about to take a tumble; it’s just a question of how far he will fall and whether he will be able to get back up. Philip has admirable traits, including having attained an Oxford education in spite of an impoverished childhood, but he nevertheless comes across as neglectful husband and an impatient, pompous know-it-all. A televised debate against a “grotesquely conservative” newspaper columnist degenerates into sniping, and he insults his opponent. Social media explodes with criticism and threats directed at Philip, and the next week gives him ample cause to double-fist his cocktails. In addition to stretches of expertly timed hilarity, including a hellish brunch, the author examines an assortment of contemporary issues, such as the gendered division of household labor, everyday sexism, volatile university politics, social media crucifixions, and political correctness. Sampson’s gift to his protagonist is not judging the 49-year-old “compulsively type A” prof as a hopeless jerk. Like Robertson Davies, he grants him the ability to direct his prodigious intellect inward, with satisfying results.

May 1, 2017
Sampson (Sad Peninsula, 2014) allows Dr. Philip Sharpe to tell his version of events in this character- and voice-driven novel. After a harsh row with his wife, Sharpe appears on live TV to provide commentary opposite an ideological rival about a recent corporate implosion, and he slips, framing a remark in terms so misogynistic that the balance of Canada is, justifiably, offended. This incident begins the novel, which walks readers through several days of aftermath. As Sharpe's wife, his students, his colleagues, and the Canadian media call for an apology, Sharpe digs in. His refusal, however, is misguided. Sharpe was so emotional the day of the interview, he honestly doesn't realize what he said and stays ignorant by avoiding the recaps. Though a worthy read, the novel takes too much of its tension from the disconnection between Sharpe's memory and his actual slip of the tongue. The more interesting question is what this compelling, human, and relatable character would do if only he understood what he said from the beginning.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)