On the HahaFiction shelf
The Best Laid Plans
Angus McLintock · Book 1
A political aide trying to leave Ottawa recruits engineering professor Angus McLintock for an election he is certain to lose. Angus agrees because it gets him out of teaching English to engineers. Then his opponent is caught in a scandal, and the unwilling candidate finds himself in Parliament.
From the publisher’s blurb
“an engineering professor who will do anything, anything, to avoid teaching English to engineers”Read the full description at Penguin Random House’s description
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What makes it funny?
Fallis gives his narrator an appetite for elaborate explanations of undignified events. In the free opening, a slip in excrement receives a detailed account of the airborne journey and landing. Book-group readers also recommend the novel in their funniest-book discussions.
The comedy at work
Winning is the disaster everyone was trying to avoid. Once elected, Angus has little interest in protecting a political career, which leaves the aide dealing with an MP who can afford to act on principle.
Try this if…
Readers looking for Canadian political satire with an accidental candidate and a sympathetic outsider may enjoy Angus. The parliamentary maneuvering comes with physical comedy and bodily jokes.
Good to know
Charlotte Ashley’s independent review found the political solutions too easy and some jokes dated. Expect sexual and bodily humor. This starts the Angus McLintock books; readers identify The High Road and Operation Angus as later installments.
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Sources & further reading
- Publisher: edition and synopsis
Publisher
- Reader discussion
Reader discussion
- Once & Future: critical review
Review
- Author: description and chapter 1
Author commentary
- Fantastic Fiction: series order
Book information
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