Venous Hum offers none of the soothing comfort evoked by the connotation of a rhythmically beating heart. Instead, Alberta author Suzette Mayr’s latest novel weaves an outrageously comical yet surreal tale of broken hearts, burning hearts, and hearts for dinner.

Mayr’s protagonist Lai Fun is a broken-hearted woman in a sexless same-sex marriage. She is also having an affair with her best friend Stefanja’s narcissistic husband. Fun’s story unfolds in four parts and a prologue that centre around a much anticipated 20-year high school reunion. Mayr’s entourage of characters also includes a witchlike lesbian sister, a catlike drooling son, an eccentric mother, a vampish English teacher, and a cast of high school classmates that Fun loathes.

The narrative intertwines multiple character perspectives with chronological disorder. The sense of disorientation culminates in the climactic reunion, which resembles a hazy dream sequence where the line between Fun’s reality and imagination blurs. Indeed, much of the novel hinges on this shifting border between fact and illusion, leaving us with no sure footing as we map these characters’ lives. The narrative often offers mere glimpses of the characters’ motivations, which remain shrouded in ambiguity.

Mayr’s use of language is experimental yet powerful, and deploys animal, body, and refuse metaphors that emphasize the comical tone. An array of bodily fluids and odours constantly assails the reader; Fun’s family appears to have a curious obsession with toilets and garbage.

Nevertheless, Mayr clearly challenges existing norms of sexual and racial identity. Is a son out of lesbian wedlock considered a bastard? Are you committing adultery if you cheat on your lesbian wife with a man? And who is truly Canadian? At times, Mayr is less than subtle in her deconstruction of the Canadian identity, as when she explicitly reiterates what the characters’ actions have already made clear. Ultimately, it is her depiction of the overwhelming human need to belong that strongly resonates with the reader.

Despite the characters’ existentialist angst, the novel ends with a tiny shard of hope. For once, optimism is not entirely flushed down the toilet or dumped into the garbage.