The Best Laid Plans

By Terry Fallis,

Book cover of The Best Laid Plans

Book description

WINNER OF CBC CANADA READS
WINNER OF THE STEPHEN LEACOCK MEDAL FOR HUMOUR

Here’s the set up: A burnt-out politcal aide quits just before an election—but is forced to run a hopeless campaign on the way out. He makes a deal with a crusty old Scot, Angus McLintock—an engineering professor…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Best Laid Plans as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Terry Fallis makes politics fun. No really. Okay, this isn’t a whodunit as in murder. But the ending is very surprising. Angus McLintock is a crusty old engineering professor who will do anything to avoid teaching English to engineers. The university will give him leave to let his name stand in the election. So, he does; no need to campaign; he is certain to lose. He wants to lose. This campaign had me in stitches. Sometimes you have to branch out from your chosen genre. I did, and I not only learnt a lot, I laughed a lot.

I can understand why this novel won the Leacock. Fallis is brilliant. Brilliantly funny. And when writing about Canadian politics, no less.  

Having read this one, I went ahead and purchased every novel he's written since. I like some better than others, but I do like them all. As with Taylor's books, I read only one chapter a day. And underline the excellent bits. Again, at random … "… his face, well, was almost purple. The folks at Crayola might call it 'Violent Violet'."  

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