I’m very happy to see Operation Angus appearing on Bestsellers lists just a week after its release. To all of you who preordered and purchased copies since it was published on August 31, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Archive for the ‘Toronto Star’ Category
Operation Angus: Bestsellers List Roundup
Wednesday, September 8th, 2021Update on Albatross as a Bestseller
Friday, August 30th, 2019Albatross continues to hang in there on most bestsellers’ lists. Any way you slice it, I’m one lucky novelist. There should be a shake-up next week with Louise Penny’s new book landing. I suspect she’ll be atop the charts very shortly. But it’s been very nice while it lasted! Anyway, here’s an Albatross bestseller update for the current week:
Number 3 on the Toronto Star Bestsellers List
Thursday, August 22nd, 2019Thank you all who have picked up Albatross already. You’re clearly moving the needle! The novel has opened at number three on the Toronto Star Bestseller list one week after launch. I couldn’t be happier or more grateful.
Toronto Star Reviews Albatross
Wednesday, August 7th, 2019Toronto Star Reviews One Brother Shy
Monday, July 24th, 2017Note: Several plot spoilers in this review
Twins reunite in quest to find father in One Brother Shy
In One Brother Shy by Terry Fallis, the search for family is also a tale of self-discovery.
Aficionados of novelist Terry Fallis’s fiction could be forgiven for thinking his new novel, One Brother Shy, might be the kind of comic turn that has earned him two Stephen Leacock Medals for Humour. But they’d be wrong. Although one central character’s somewhat chippy personality has its amusing moments, the book is more psychological whodunit than side-splitting farce. The book is also something of an ode to one of the most unique emotional bonds a human can experience — the ineffable connection shared by identical twins.
But at the narrative’s outset, the shy, diffident and, yes, chippy Ottawa-based Alex MacAskill has no idea he was separated at birth from his much more sophisticated London-based twin brother Matt Paterson. Resolving the mystery of their separation and discovering the father they never knew keeps the novel humping along at a breakneck pace.
The action begins with the death of Alex’s mother and two pictures she leaves behind as a mysterious legacy. One of them shows a man, seen only from the shoulders down, cradling two newborns in his arms. The pictures contain a clue that would be critical to tracking him down: an odd tattoo on the left arm. But Alex initially has more pressing business: finding his twin who’s out there — somewhere.
Alex possesses a useful skill to aid and abet his sleuthing. A brilliant code writer, he’s developing state-of-the-art facial-recognition software, so faster than a speeding hard drive, Alex quickly discovers his bro is a successful tech entrepreneur in London and seemingly his polar opposite, emotionally, psychologically and experientially. Or is he?
A compelling subplot in One Brother Shy is the impact of a humiliating trauma Alex experienced as a 15-year-old aspiring high-school actor. After spiking his Coke with a Viagra-like pill, two bullies lower a dazed, naked — and tumescent — Alex onto the stage of his high-school Christmas pageant and the ensuing video — “ARCHangel” — became the Internet’s first viral sensation. Humiliated, Alex retreats from life, going emotionally AWOL for the next decade, until he meets his twin.
Once reunited, the twins go in search of their father, an odyssey that takes them to Putin’s Moscow with its vestiges of Soviet-era spooks and memories of the 1972 U.S.S.R.-Canada hockey series. Eventually, they succeed in finding their dad, but that is not the book’s emotional crescendo, IMO. That transpires when shy, taciturn Alex, the one-time aspiring actor, rediscovers himself by “playing” his brother, sidelined by laryngitis just before a make-or-break corporate dog-and-pony show. But had his twin tricked him into undergoing an emotional catharsis? Alex, confrontationally: “You never lost your voice, did you?” Matt, cryptically: “I lost mine, you found yours.” Now that’s identical twin love.
One Brother Shy is a charming, affecting book with perhaps one little caveat: Fallis’s tendency to tie up all plot lines with the precision of a daytime soap. A small quibble, perhaps.
Robert Collison is a Toronto writer and editor.
Poles Apart Bestsellers List Roundup
Wednesday, November 11th, 2015In the first few weeks of its life, it’s been very gratifying to see Poles Apart grace a number of bestsellers lists in various positions. I just wanted to note them here for posterity’s sake, as this blog is a kind of digital scrapbook of my writing life. Here’s hoping Poles Apart hangs on for a few more weeks before it inevitably slips off these ever-changing bestsellers lists. I’m grateful to the many readers who have bought the book and helped propel it into these rankings.
Thinking of Paul Quarrington today…
Monday, June 1st, 2009As I wrote recently in one of my little “Writers I revere” posts, I’ve been a fan of Paul Quarrington for over 20 years. I’ve read all of his novels and have first editions of each one. I’ve always admired him and his writing. So it was wonderful to share the stage with him in April at the Grimsby Author Series.
I started my day this morning as I often do, reading the Toronto Star. To my great shock and concern, there was a story about Paul and his lung cancer diagnosis made two weeks ago. What a bastard this disease is. It’s fitting that today is dreary, overcast, and melancholy. That just about sums up how I feel. Paul, your many fans are sending you positive vibes…
TBLP in the Toronto Star
Monday, April 28th, 2008I’m sure my 15 minutes must soon be up. Because of the Leacock Medal shortlist, the Toronto Star ran a nice piece in the Sunday Star this past weekend. They even teased the story on the front page of the Entertainment section. I’d done the interview and photography last week. I’m amazed at how many people have e-mailed me in the wake of the article, including some who have said that they’ve ordered the book. Every little bit helps!