A strange mixture of power, tension, and torment, Waste No Tears is a shocking exposé of social evils with a forceful message for both sexes. Ignored by some critics, dismissed by others, this novel about the abortion racket is the stuff of legend: Hugh Garner claimed that it had been written in 10 days as part of a struggle to ward off incipient starvation; he was paid $400 for his efforts. Dark and disturbing, the story is a kind of memoir penned by Tom Matterson, a Cabbagetown son who spends 20 years making the 10-block journey from the street of his birth to skid row. Told from the perspective of its male narrator, the novel contains lurid descriptions of rapacious sex and harrowing depictions of death, boozing, brawling, blackmail, and back alley abortions. In Waste No Tears, the men are always tight and the women loose, and it is this downward spiral of sexual incontinence and drunken regret that propels the novel toward its morality-play conclusion.

Hugh Garner was a Toronto novelist, short story writer, and journalist. He published 16 books during his lifetime, including Hugh Garner’s Best Stories, winner of the Governor General’s Award for English-language Fiction.