The Best Laid Plans. Terry Fallis. 2007, 312 pages.
This self-published first novel by an Ottawa area native is a delightful, funny, light read with some serious messages. Fallis despaired of finding a publisher for it and initially read it on a podcast. But it went on to win the Stephen Leacock award for Canadian humor. He has since written a sequel and five other novels, all fun to read, but this one is still my favourite. I was disappointed in the film adaptation.
The central character is an elderly eccentric, exacting widowed Scottish professor of engineering, a rare breed of academic who expertly straddles C.P. Snow’s two cultures of science and humanities. He enters into what he is sure is a winning contract with his young single English Department boarder, the narrator of the story. With no real interest in politics, he agrees to run for parliament as a Liberal in a very safe Conservative riding, planning to do no campaigning and certain to lose. In exchange the English professor agrees to teach the obligatory ‘English for Engineers’ course that the perfectionist engineering prof finds agonizing to teach because the ‘cultural pygmies’ in the engineering class are disinterested and ignorant of the nuances of English linguistics. I won’t give away more of the twisted plot, but let’s just say that the Best Laid Plans of several characters go unpredictably awry.
The humour is wry, the political messages are still relevant eleven years later, and the characters are all slightly exaggerated but believable caricatures. They include devious and corrupt politicians (one caught with his pants down- how timely), eccentric retirement home feminists, and tree-hugging hippie environmentalists. The sex is subtle, not graphic or vulgar, and the nuances of the English language are use to their fullest.
Besides, what other novel has ever featured an engineer as the central character?
Next week, another Canadian novel Full Disclosure.
The Passionate Reader 
I read this novel for my Muse & Views Bookclub in the Spring of 2012 and enjoyed it very much. It certainly had enough in the twisted plot to keep all of us interested. We Skyped with Mr. Fallis during our meeting and he was very funny and generous with his time. Though all of us, having lived in Ottawa and region for a long time, recognized many places described the “Cumberland/Prescott riding, downtown Cumberland, downtown Ottawa, Parliament Hill, the “University of Ottawa” we were surprised when Mr. Fallis told us he had never been to Cumberland ! He described it so well!
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