Bøger af Troy Parfitt

Max Klein is a working-class educator. Overflowing with liberalness and bolstered by a handful of expensive degrees, he heads to the developing world to teach and make positive change in his students' lives. However, when his own life becomes entangled in a net of hostility and corruption, he's reminded that doing what's right can be difficult. Max's ensuing cynicism and downslide intersect with his brother's escalating success. A blue-collar worker, Donald Trump supporter, and outright bigot, Karl Klein gloats over his financial victories and taunts Max for being an excessively tolerant and cerebral failure. Naturally for Max, the principled intellectual, deflecting jabs from Karl, the racist ignoramus, is a cinch. But as his employment prospects worsen, whether he can maintain the moral high road becomes unclear. Indeed, while lecturing at an institute on the edge of nowhere, the teacher gets schooled by the unlikeliest of students. The Bigot: or How I Learned to Love Donald Trump offers a literary glimpse into populism and Trumpism. It is, therefore, a tragicomedy.

War Torn: Adventures in the Brave New Canada is travel literature woven with threads of political commentary. Troy Parfitt travels through every Canadian province and territory in a bid to reconnect with his estranged homeland. However, the connection appears to be broken as the author is bothered by poverty, a scandal-ridden and increasingly autocratic government, and quiet complicity about his country's involvement in The War in Afghanistan. Parfitt touches on numerous themes, from Canadian literature, to the nation's obsession with hockey, to descriptions of Newfoundland, British Columbia, and Nunavut. There is plenty of humour (there'd have to be), but the tie that binds is criticism of Canada's shift to the right and the state manufactured belief that bettering citizens' lives comes after fulfilling military contracts and waging war. Readers looking to find out how democratic, friendly, and socialist Canada is should refer to fiction.