Review of
Cheeseburger Subversive
from
Storyteller: Canada’s Short Story Magazine
Fall 2003 (Tenth Anniversary Issue)

     In this collection of linked short stories, we follow the adventures of Dak Sifter, from the ages of about twelve to eighteen.  If the name and title sound familiar, Scarsbrook has appeared several times in Storyteller; the book’s title is taken from a story that appeared on our pages in 1999.

     Obstensibly a young adult book, Cheeseburger Subversive is certain to be enjoyed by people of all ages.  In fact, Dak’s wit and insights are far beyond his years, even if he is a "gifted  student.  Perhaps this wisdom is developed because his clueless father provides so little of it.

     Dak’s father is the well-intentioned and unwitting catalyst for many of Dak’s problems - Dak is not quite the son he’d hoped for, and every effort to stimulate the "real boy  in his son (Dak habitually flunks Phys. Ed.) goes wrong somehow.  Dak’s lifelong crush on Zoe Perry also gets him into situations he (and the reader) never expected.

     Mostly, these are stories of self-discovery: what you can do if pressed hard enough.  Mostly, they are light-hearted or out-and-out funny, although "Benjamin’s Aliens  is a modern tragedy.  The writing, which is Scarsbrook at his best, is often of the type you want to read aloud to others