Homer in Flight

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Homerwad Santokie, 32, is a young Caribbean filing clerk who abandons a
secure job and dependent parents in Trinidad and emigrates to Canada.
After spending a month as an unwelcome guest in his cousin’s basement,
an old classmate helps him find a job and an apartment in Toronto. Every
time Homer experiences difficulties in Canada, he recites a mental list
of the reasons he left Trinidad. Unfortunately, the longer he stays in
Canada, the more he finds that these same reasons have followed him to
his new home.

This humorous novel offers compelling insights into the modern Canadian
immigrant experience. The embassy clerk’s reference to Homer’s
resemblance to James Wood, an American actor, is Homer’s first inkling
of what awaits him in Toronto, where appearance often takes precedence
over substance. He also discovers that Canada is a nation of competing
immigrants, each striving to become materially successful no matter what
the cost. From both Canadians and immigrants, Homer encounters various
types of racism and often is a racist himself. Forever in search of
escape, Homer ultimately discovers that he is in flight from himself.

Although virtually all of Maharaj’s characters are unlovable, the
author captures and holds the reader’s attention by making them as
interesting as only highly irritating people can be.