Update: My first review of this very humorous book was in 2018. I read it for my book club in November of 2018 in Victoria, B.C. Now living in Regina, Saskatchewan and participating in with another group of women, I read it again. Three years is a long time between reading a book for a second time. The story seemed lost to me until I began re-reading it. Discussion this evening was so very similar to that earlier time ~ we all enjoyed this very easy read. Here is my updated and edited review from 2018.
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Comedy. I really didn’t know that novels could be comedic. Really. One Brother Shy is a comedy. Alex, painfully shy and introverted, has developed a facial recognition program for a company called Facetech. Based in Ottawa, the office he worked in is an open space office with ‘lame fabric partitions masquerading as cubicles’. His cubicle mate, Abby, with a high energy personality, seems to have limited respect for his obvious introversion. He lives with his mother who has been a single parent since his birth. Sadly, she passes away early in the book. The night before he was told that she wanted to tell him something important. He is alone with only their housekeeper, Malaya, and meets regularly with a psychologist, Dr. Wendy Weaver. They are the only other people he trusts enough to share his secrets. The name Gabriel comes up through the book as the cause of his social shyness and inability to speak freely. Alex is not curious about exploring that part of this life, but is curious about the information his mother didn’t get to tell him. A trail of clues in his home and a mysterious regular monthly bank deposit are those curiosities. Even more so is a half picture in his mother’s bank deposit box showing a man holding a baby. The photograph is also trimmed so the man’s head has been cut off. There are numbers on the back but no reference to what they mean. A detail in the photograph is the greatest curiosity and motivates him to move out of his comfort zone. His journey begins when he uses his facial recognition program to search for answers. Learning that he has a twin brother, he very, very bravely tells his very incredibly toxic boss that he is taking time off to continue his search. His travels take him to London, to Russia and back to Canada.
This is a very easily read book full of sarcastic humour, weaves Alex’s story through Russia/Canada hockey rivalries, issues of social media and some Canadian politics, always in a light conversational manner. Terry Fallis addresses several serious issues in this story with a very light and sensitive touch.
“I just stayed still, not that I could move much.
I knew any movement would make it worse.”
~ Alex, One Brother Shy
Title: One Brother Shy
Author: Terry Fallis
Copyright: 2017
Format: Soft cover
ISBN-978-0-7710-5072-5
ebook ISBN-978-1-7710-5073-2
Type: Fiction
Publisher: McClelland & Stuart
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