Carpenter’s voice captures both the bleakness and the unexpected joys of life. Filled with moments of high humour but grounded by the sense of defeat and rejection that we all face, this novel provides an insight into the human condition, its foibles, its delights and its lunacy.
Niceman Cometh is a book about Glory. Glory Sacher lives in Saskatoon, and this is the story of one year in her life, and of the men that covet her. The year is centred around Christmas, and the Niceman is Santa Claus. After her marriage fails, Glory, as a single mum, is left to raise her six-and-a-half-year old son alone. Bobby is a precocious, yet normal, sort of a boy. Does well at school, except when overcome by depression caused by the comings and goings of mum’s many admirers. As Glory’s friend Jolene explains it succinctly, ‘Glory had a good eye for a sonofabitch!’