Becalming

Maksimowska (Giant) serves up a sardonic portrait of a young woman in search of fulfillment. Gosia, pushing 30, teaches high school chemistry in Toronto and finds her life “entirely dull and unsatisfying.” She immigrated to Canada from Poland as a child and is now in a common-law relationship with her French Canadian boyfriend, Peter, who leaves her unsatisfied. (“I was self-conscious of how much sex I wanted to have. I often cried after he fell asleep, frustrated, rejected, deprived.”) Gosia becomes attracted to a female colleague named Harris and kisses her during a night of drunken debauchery. Peter’s father, Phil, meanwhile, is diagnosed with lung cancer and given three months to live. While he’s in the hospital, Gosia travels to Poland with her mother to visit her estranged father and grapples with whether to tell Peter about her indiscretion with Harris. While the narrative is initially confusing, due to its jagged leaps forward and backward through time, Maksimowska’s mordant wit shines (“Pride was best kept personal and private, like masturbation,” Gosia reflects), and she adds depth to the characters, as when Gosia discovers a connection between Peter’s ambivalence toward sex and Phil’s infidelity. There’s much to admire in this cutting narrative. (May)