— is & PNbEPbAINMERG The Sun Does Set Kali Thurber, A&E Editor Ernest Hemmingway once wrote, “It’s tragic how often first novels are the only good nov- els American writers have in them.” But Frederico Morales proves in his first novel, The Sun Never Sets, that the real tragedy is that ef unbridled honesty. With an obvious lack of irony, The Sun Also Rises—whoops, I mean, The Sun Never Sets—is a post-graduate, coming-of-age story told by a middle-class, educated, dimwit named Paul. Paul is the prototype of North American 20-somethings—he wants to get fucked by pretty girls, smokes pot out of boredom, and eventually ends up at a few (loosely fictionalized) political protests for a lack of anything better to do. This character is so encapsulating, and painfully real, that Paul ends up being too average to be a per- son—instead, he stands for a whole category of young, Canadian hedonists who resent everything their parents represent, and des- perately continue the endless pursuit of searching for something (anything) to happen to them. It’s possible that this is the kind of book that defines this generation of privi- leged, self-obsessed post-graduates, but with such a literal plot line, and no-good laugh- out-loud-at-ourselves moments it’s nearly impossible to tell how the writer intended the book to be read. After all, Generation Next is a bracket of youth that are just screaming to be made fun of—Morales was either too fresh at writing to capture the level of cyni- cism that is needed, or too wrapped up in fictionalized autobiography to peak out and see who his target audience is. The second option seems likely, considering Morales’ pro- tagonist is also too self-obsessed to see that the world that surrounds him doesn’t fit with his many (rather plagiarized) ideals. Disappointingly, what the novel does- n't lack are the crude shit-and-piss jokes that rate high on the hilarity scale for young men. To make matters worse, this brainless banter is often book ended by clichéd conversations about big, abstract ideas (like time) described in simple, appropriately blasé, post-secondary dribble. However, The Sun Never Ses isn’t a book without any merit (the writer made it through 267 pages didn’t he?). Being set in the Lower Mainland will encourage many locals to take an active interest in a fellow Vancouverite’s first book, though little of the city is actually brought to life with descrip- tion. The aspects of The Sun Never Sets that really deserve recognition, though, are the facts that Morales published the book him- self, and wrote it at only 22 years of age. Perhaps it is this youthfulness that keeps the book from developing into a fully realized novel. Morales still has much time, and promise. Perhaps, with enough of both, he will see the humour in the modern human struggle, and let us laugh at ourselves. Tera Kali Thurber, A&E Editor Album: It Was 40 Years Ago Today: A Tribute To The Beatles Release Date: August 2004 You may be asking yourselves why any faithful Beatles fan would be interested in listening to a landslide of nobodies butchering perfectly good songs in a failed attempt at paying homage to the heroes of an entire musical generation. If you know the answer to this enigma, and you're one of those suckers who desperately adores listening to nice, old, pop songs that have been remixed and sung so many times that you've almost forgotten who sang them in the first place, then you'll probably get a kick out of this 50-song, two-CD compilation. This tribute album is an overview of the Beatles’ musical output from 1962 through 1970 as done by artists in the pop community who owe a debt of musical gratitude to those four loveable lads from Liverpool. The leading incentive for any Beatles lover to buy this album is for the revealing liner notes, which were written by Craig Cross, author of Beatles Discography: Minute-By-Minute, Hour-By-Hour, Day-By-Da). Movie: Wicker Park Release Date: September 2, 2004 With a young, all-star cast, Wicker Park is a passionate love story on the outside, but on the inside this psychological drama is just waiting to knock your socks off with every twist and turn. Jumping back, forth, and all around the present time, this movie demands not to be watched as your typical boy-meets-girl flick—instead, it’s more like a boy-meets-girl-boy-loses-girl-boy-thinks-he-sees-girl-and-spends- the-rest-of-the-movie-trying-to-find-girl flick. Wicker Park is actually based on the acclaimed French movie, L’Appartement, by Gilles Mimouni, which means the passion level has most likely been taken down a few notches for us English folks—those darn French know everything about love. 16 | GuhePpress