Review: Poles Apart – Terry Fallis

2017:86
5 of 5 stars
Published in 2015

After the mind F#$* that was Bellevue Square and the frustration that was The Manticore and a dose of violence and investigative journalism that was The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye, I am ready for something light, fun and easy to read. What better than the humour of Terry Fallis?

Everette Kane, a freelance journalist in his 30s and avid feminist has to be the dutiful son and assist his father who is recovering from a stroke in Florida. He finds a small apartment and flies from Toronto to Orlando for the duration but finds he has a lot of time on his hands so he starts a blog. A feminist blog called Eve of Equality. When Ev takes on the owner of a chain of strip clubs, one of which has newly opened in the building where his apartment is, word of mouth and the backing of a TV talk show host send its popularity into the stratosphere and suddenly his blog is the talk of the nation.  The thing is, nobody realizes the woman behind the blog is a man.

Everette spends part of his days with his misogynistic father and connecting with a feminist hero who is also a patient there and spends much of the rest of his time writing blog posts and wrangling with the comments and emails the blog produces. He gets to know several people connected with the XY club downstairs and becomes entangled in the web he’s created trying to keep his blog anonymous. There are successes and there are dangers. Everette learns a lot about himself and his family during these months and might just come out the other end unharmed. Or unhinged. It could go either way.

Loved the book. Fallis writes with such wit that you’re smiling through most of the pages at his turns of phrases, and lovely little moments. His characters feel very real and he mixes quite a diverse number of types together to interact with his earnest young Everette through the story. You always know you’re going to get an easy to read but highly enjoyable tale from Terry Fallis, a top Canadian writer if ever there was one. I can highly recommend his novels!