"No Relation" by Terry Fallis

Synopsis:
This is the story of a young copywriter in New York City. He's worked at the same agency for fifteen years, and with a recent promotion under his belt, life is good. Then, one morning this copywriter finds himself unceremoniously fired from his job, and after he catches his live-in girlfriend moving out of their apartment a couple hours later, he's also single. Believe it or not, these aren't the biggest problems in this copywriter's life. There's something bigger, something that has been haunting him his whole life, something that he'll never be able to shake. Meet Earnest Hemmingway. 


What's in a name? Well, if you share your moniker with the likes of some of the most revered, infamous, and sometimes dreaded names in history, plenty. This is Earnest's lifelong plight, but something more recent is on his plate: His father is pressuring him to come home and play an active role in running the family clothing business. And as a complex familial battle plays out, Earnest's inherited name leads him in unexpected directions. Wry, clever, and utterly engaging, No Relation is Terry Fallis at the top of his form.

My review:
I loved Fallis' book "Up and Down".  It was the first book I had read by him.  I found it quite funny and understood why it won him the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour in 2013.  A friend has read and loved his other two books "The Best Laid Plans" and "The High Road" because of how funny she found them; they are on my TBR.  So knowing that he's good at humour, that's what I was expecting this time around.  When I saw him in July 2013 and he told us the basic synopsis of "No Relation", I knew I wanted to read it because of how funny it sounded.  I have to say that, in my opinion, it is not as funny as "Up and Down".  But that's not a bad thing.  It's still a great book.  I did find humour in it and chuckled at parts.  My friend, who is also reading it at the same time as me, also found it less funny.  Despite that, I still found it an interesting and gripping read.  The plot and characters drew me into the story and kept me wanting to know what would happen next.  I love books with happy endings and this ties up all the loose threads and rounds everything up nicely.

Part of the plot involves a character named after Professor James Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes nemesis.  This leads Earnest to read the Sherlock Holmes stories.  I have had "The Complete Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in a lovely Penguin giant paperback edition and in e-book format.  Reading "No Relation" has re-ignited my desire to read the Sherlock Holmes book.

One of the things I love most about Terry Fallis is that he offers audio versions of his books as free podcasts on iTunes.  After hearing him read an excerpt from "Up and Down" at the author talk at my library, I downloaded all the episodes of his other books.  Even though I have already read "Up and Down" and "No Relation", I will be rereading them by listening to him read them to me.  I plan to do the same with the other two.

Read on,
Paula