Ricci's new novel
In his new novel, The Origin of Species (Doubleday Canada, $35), 49-year-old Nino Ricci turns to Montreal, in the shallow, self-absorbed 1980s, to tell the story of Alex, a grad student transfixed by Darwinian ideas and by how those theories resonate with his own life and moral choices.
An audacious choice — using the actual title of Darwin’s own work.
I felt I’d established a tradition of stealing other titles for my own books. Darwin’s actual title [in 1859] was 21 words long. I like the allusiveness of it, and people make that connection immediately.
Your book Testament was about Jesus; now you’re writing about Darwin. Is there a creative connection between the two books?
Oh, yes. Darwin was the next big thing after Jesus. Jesus crystallizes a certain world view — he became a turning point for a shift in human consciousness, a move away from power as ultimate authority toward conscience and similar things. Darwin brought about a similar shift; he started something we are barely coming to terms with now — our understanding of our place in the cosmos. I’ve noticed in the past few years an increase in books about Darwin and evolution, which is disconcerting as I first thought about this project 20 years ago!
The Origin of Species is set in 1980s Montreal…why?
The ’80s seem like our ’50s, a time of innocence, in retrospect. We were living in this bubble of affluence and self-regard now proven to be the calm before the storm of realizing that the world is on the brink of utter destruction as a result of our self-indulgence. The ’80s were the beginning of the swing of the pendulum. Economic metaphors dominated thinking, and people accepted that [ideology] as they never would have in the ’60s. Social Darwinism had again become accepted.
