Guy
Jowita Bydlowska
October 2016
272 pages | ISBN 978-1-928088-23-3
Meet Guy, a successful talent agent who dates models, pop stars and women he meets on the beach. He compulsively rates women’s looks on a scale from one to ten. He’s a little bit racist, in denial about his homophobia and enjoys making fun of people’s weight. His only real friend, besides his dog, recently joined a pickup artist group in order to be more like Guy.
Completely oblivious to his own lack of empathy, Guy’s greatest talent is hiding his flaws…until he meets someone who challenges him like never before. Darkly funny, Guy is a brilliant study of toxic masculinity, exposing the narcissistic thoughts of the misogynist next door.
Advance Praise | Reviews | Articles | Excerpt | About the Author
Advance Praise
"Being Guy felt horrifically natural, as if he stepped right out of my own debased, politically incorrect sex fantasy. This book is unputdownable, full of sly, modern details that made me laugh and grimace right into the twist ending." – Miranda July, author of The First Bad Man
"Guy is devestating and hilarious. It's brutal and destructive and life-affirming. It's a must read. Jowita Bydlowska isn't just one of this nation's bravest writers, she's one of our best." – Joseph Boyden, author of The Orenda
"I'm reading Jowita Bydlowska's Guy. I can't think of another novel where a female writer gets so deeply and convincingly into the head of a man, right into his sexual DNA. What a brave, absorbing book this is. Truly impressive." – Barbara Gowdy
Reviews
Book Review: Guy (Rayna Livingstone-Lang, Broken Pencil, 25/07/2017)
"The way that Bydlowska dives into Guy’s mind feels so natural that it’s unsettling. While disturbing and disgusting, Guy’s internal narrative is pretty hilarious, but in that same dark and perverse way that Seinfeld is funny. Bydlowska is careful not to let comedy undercut the loathsome nature at the root of her story: this type of toxic masculinity is very real and very dangerous. It takes great skill to create a balanced narrative like this, and Bydlowska proves that she has this in spades."
"The must-read Toronto books of 2016" (Anna Fitzpatrick, Toronto Life
"Byklowska paints a convincing portrait of the modern misogynist in a novel full of hilarious and disturbingly realistic detail."
"Guy by Jowita Bydlowska" (Naomi MacKinnon, Consumed by Ink, 11/28/2016)
"I think that I’ll be passing this book on to the members of my book club. I’m looking forward to a discussion about the intentions of men, the vengeance of women, and the reasonable limits of both."
"‘Guy’ by Jowita Bydlowska" (Noah Cain, Winnipeg Review, 11/07/2016)
"Guy is not just a wonderful first novel, it is a wonderful novel. It will turn you on, disturb you, make you think and keep you reading past your bedtime."
"Review: In her debut novel, Guy, Jowita Bydlowska enters the mind of a misogynist" (Stacey May Fowles, Globe and Mail, 10/14/2016)
"What is truly terrifying about Guy is not the enemy pretending to be a friend to women that Bydlowska has created, but the fact that you’ve likely met him in your own life many times before. Guy is the all-too-common charming abuser unchecked, able to get exactly what he wants because he moves through the world entirely undetected."
"Is There a Guy in All of Us?" (Steven Buechler, Library of Pacific Tranquility, 10/04/2016)
"Bydlowska has captured a element of the human condition here. I kept flashing back to the plot of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho and while Bydlowska’s Guy is not as ultra violent as Patrick Bateman, he is indeed as vile at times. There is a conceit about him that we all somehow can relate to – we know somebody like that – and in doing so a reader takes time out to pause to consider their realities."
"Not a sentimental bone in this Guy" (
