Going Grand

Else Ransom lived in Chelmsford, Ontario.

Jack MacLeod, author of Zinger and Me, has cut loose again with Going Grand. Readers with a liking for words should feel at home with this one. In Going Grand the characters infect each other with witty irreverence for the Canadian Way of Academics. Nothing is what it seems to be and the plot is another insight into the complexities of making it in the hallowed halls of higher education.

Professor J.T. McLaughlin begins a new term and his own season of typical Canadian hell, a money-depressive period. The man is one of a rare breed: he wants to teach. But his career, with a push from a voluptuous “freshperson,” goes dangerously onto the rocks. The background is enriched by minor characters, each of whom exerts a special pressure on J.T. There is his wife, who tries to help him and then must extricate herself; Bert Grimsby, who knows all about dead ends and becomes one himself; Nubar Nalorian, who represents the new life the university needs, but, alas, is plucked from life’s mortal mess in macho style. In desperation J.T. is finally driven to an act of madness. His rational mind fortunately clicks into reverse and takes him back to the scene of the crime like a hockey game replay. He scores and suddenly he’s a winner.

The tale does get bogged down in its own pomposity for a span, but it ends in satisfying fashion.