Review | Mike Steeves’ new book ‘Bystander’: a 2022 companion to ‘The Fight Club’ and ‘American Psycho,’ without all the blood

Peter Simons watches “prestige TV” in drunk binges and stoned marathons. He mentions as much at least a dozen times over the course of “Bystander,” Montreal-based Mike Steeves’ engrossing and absurdist sophomore novel.

An unsettling (albeit funny) narrator, Simons is inconsistently self-aware, neurotic and narcissistic, and invested in the philosophical quest to know himself so long as it doesn’t interfere with his operating principle, to “act out of the most naked self-interest and moral cowardice.”

Steeves (whose previous book “Giving Up” was a finalist for Concordia University’s first book prize) introduces Simons as a self-admitted mediocrity with the “right look”; he’s a ready-made account executive with “bland good looks” who pays inordinate attention to personal hygiene. After a decade living the “global business lifestyle” in a “little bubble of corporate luxury,” he’s developed a singular ability to stay focused on “something nebulous and inconsequential.”

Grounded for a while at the home office, Steeves’ Millennial anti-hero begins to spiral.

At his rental — in “a modest tenement building on a partially gentrified street” in an unnamed “world-class city” — this “citizen with a mid-range six-figure salary” who has a “reputation for being competent, reliable, consistent, upbeat, results-oriented, and an all-around asset to the company” (his exact job, in finance he claims, remains vague and, he admits, “at least ninety percent” of what he does is for show), endures hilarious calls with his parents, frets fruitlessly, obsesses out of habit, and overshares the blind alleys and hopeless morasses of his thinking. To Steeves’ credit, he makes Simons equally appealing and appalling.

Though Simons once saw himself as “someone with moral courage and a selfless nature,” that’s changed. “All the energy I used to devote to cultivating an appreciation for classical music is now being used for arguments with customer service representatives,” he confides. “All that remains of my intellectual curiosity is a voracious appetite for prestige TV.”

Steeves’ stylish novel pokes fun at this dude without qualities, a wannabe mensch who gets snagged by laziness, trivia and stuff. “People like me … who have my particular socioeconomic background, can wind up advancing in their career and making a lot of money just by showing up every day and being ready and willing to do whatever the company asks of you,” he says while mentioning his $12,000 Japanese kitchen knife and “money-saturation method” for solving any and all problems.

Between ridiculous workplace anxieties and the suicide of a neighbour (followed by aggravating new tenants), Simons commits to getting involved and sorting his varying moral responsibilities while stating firmly that “It’s never a good idea to get involved.”

Surrounded by sketchily nicknamed figures (Handyman, Grim Reaper, Athleisure Wear Woman), Simons undergoes a quest … or at least ponders doing so.

An enjoyably quirky and biting portrait of personal realpolitik, “Bystander” offers a credible complement to “Fight Club” and “American Psycho,” though one minus the chest-beating postures and litres of shed blood.

SHARE: