STANLEY PARK, Timothy Taylor's debut novel, revolves around the stress-packed life of Chef Jeremy Papier who divides his culinary colleagues into either "Bloods" or "Crips." A "Blood" himself, Jeremy reveres the preparation of classic French bistro cooking. "Blood cooks were respectful of tradition, nostalgic even...linked to 'local' by the inheritance of adoption of a culture, linked to a particular manner and place of being." On the other hand, Crip cooks, "were post-national. They called themselves artists. They tended to stack things like mahi mahi and grilled eggplant in wobbly towers glued together with wasabi mayonnaise, and were frequently suspicious of butter." While Chef Jeremy is definitely Blood, running his cherished bistro into the ground in pursuit of his goal, the novel itself is Crip, most definitely Crip.

Anyone who frequents restaurants these days will note that fusion is a popular concept. Maybe you've seen it for yourself; dishes like coq au vin on a bed of kimchi surrounded by cilantro infused olive oil splotches. In STANLEY PARK Taylor has managed to fuse a crime novel with a workplace comedy and nap it all with a sauce of sociological theories of homelessness. If that's not fusion, I don't know what is. It's funny, poignant, suspenseful, tiring and, above all, very, very good.

Chef Jeremy owns and operates The Monkey's Paw Bistro in hip, youthful, wired Vancouver. Their menu changes daily and emphasizes local ingredients. "It wasn't a question of being opposed to imported ingredients, but of preference, allegiance, of knowing what goodness came from the earth around you..." All of this local goodness comes at a price, one Jeremy can only afford through kiting several credit cards. The reader gets a clear picture of Jeremy, whose dedication to his food and his employees nearly forces him into bankruptcy. His initial investor is one Dante Beale, a family friend who runs a Starbucks-esque empire appropriately called Inferno Coffee. Dante speaks in stories, doesn't use contractions and is always accompanied by his minion, Phillip. One can almost see him drumming his figures together a la the Grinch.

Taylor's ability to produce such compelling characters is one of the novel's chief strengths. Dante, flinty sous-chef Jules Capelli, Jeremy's arty girlfriend Benny, even his oddball academician father --- all are complex, layered characters that might deflate into caricatures in less capable hands. The characters and their intertwined relationships carry the frequently surreal story forward.

More than just a workplace expose, STANLEY PARK also explores the relationship between Jeremy and his semi-estranged father, known only as The Professor. The Professor is a "participatory anthropologist," who is currently studying the culture of the homeless who live in Stanley Park. The Professor lives in the park, eating out of dumpsters and occasionally nabbing a slow-witted duck. Taylor portrays the homeless as real people, troubled, but real --- especially Caruzo, the Professor's erstwhile research assistant. "There were many horsepower to Caruzo. He panted out his words in anxious, breathy gasps, and was frequently helpless to movements that flashed through his limbs."

Stanley Park is as much a character here as it is a setting, infused with a real sense of malevolence. "Sounds became apparent among the trees, sounds beyond the steady hiss of leaves and needles, some coming through the million frictions in the canopy above. Voices. The sound of movement, of life and activity." These homeless are definitely not the "smart and funny but mentally ill" people we see so often in the movies. At his father's insistence, Chef Jeremy researches the murders of two young children whose bodies were found in the park, forming one of several subplots that contribute to the novel's overall beauty and complexity.

A financially strung out Jeremy is eventually forced to make a Faustian bargain with Dante who guts the bistro and establishes in its place Gerriamo's, a thoroughly focus-grouped restaurant, a Crip palace if you will. Stanley Park figures prominently in its opening as Jeremy pulls the ultimate Chef prank, giving the fawning "fooderati" exactly what they deserve. In STANLEY PARK, Taylor has given us much more than we deserve --- a rich, complex, thoroughly engrossing and deliciously humorous novel. Even if it is Crip.

   --- Reviewed by Shannon Bloomstran (shanpb@swbell.net)

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