Something for Nothing

Set in 1971, in the remote reaches of British Columbia, this comedic first novel follows the adventures of the small, isolated town of Nothing, B. C., as it finally gets television. Not everyone in the mountain community is excited by the prospects of a television tower on the top of the mountain, least of all Sol Nothing, the town's curmudgeon and patriarch. But he can't hold back progress all by himself. Enter a television crew, led by the slick Robert Dupry, there to document the momentous transformation. Another newcomer to town arrives in the form of Susan Sawtensky, a clumsy, cultural anthropologist, with a heart of gold, there to study the affects of television on the town's inhabitants. Before you can say Jiffy Pop, the two camps are locked in a tug of war of ideas on the merits and mayhem of television. When the ancient, wizened Indian Chief Old Stick in the Mud, living high in the mountains, is finally consulted about his feelings concerning the advent of television, we know we've entered into a bizarre, perhaps even magical world. Something For Nothing is that rare romantic comedy that tickles the funny bone as it touches the heart. Television comes to Nothing, and Nothing will ever be the same again.