<p> Robert Fulford called it “a remarkable glimpse of the underbelly of Toronto,” but the reviews that greeted the publication of <i>Cabbagetown Diary</i> in 1970 were decidedly mixed. The novel’s rowdy concoction of grit and violence and rooming-house sleaze had a strongly polarizing effect on its readers. Many admired the frankness of Butler’s depiction of a sordid environment, and others deplored the obscenity of the language and the dangerous and careless ways in which his characters behave, bent as they are on downward self-transcendence. But <i>Cabbagetown Diary</i> was undeniably a promising debut by a young writer whose brash tone and pungent subject matter were unique in Canadian writing at that time. </p> <p> The novel takes the form of a diary written by a disaffected young Toronto bartender, Michael, over the course of his four-month liaison with Terry, a naive teenager who is new to the city. Michael introduces her to his friends and his inner-city haunts, to drink and drugs, and to the nihilist politics espoused by some in his circle. With hard-bitten cynicism and flashes of dark humour, Michael relates the vicissitudes of their summer together. </p> <p> This reissue of <i>Cabbagetown Diary</i> includes a biographical sketch by Charles Butler and an afterword by Tamas Dobozy. </p>