The Antagonist
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: February 22, 2017 4:01 PM | Last Updated: February 28, 2017
Lynn Coady
Gordon Rankin (known as "Rank" to his family and friends) has been a big guy ever since adolescence, and as he grows older, he takes on roles that fit the stereotype, like hockey enforcer and bouncer. But at heart he's no brute, so when Rank discovers that a former college friend has written a novel based on him, he decides to set the story straight. An insightful look at the psychological and emotional toll of being typecast as a bruiser, The Antagonist is full of heart, and humour too.
The Antagonist was a finalist for the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
From the book
There you are in the picture looking chubby and pompous, and it makes me remember how you told me that time you were afraid of fat people. That is, afraid of being fat, and hating those who were, so fear and hating, like of a contagion, the same way homophobes — guys who are actually maybe gay or have the potential for gayness within them — are thought to be afraid of homos. So want to annihilate them, make them not exist. You said you were embarrassed by it, though, your hatred of fat people, your fear. You knew it was shallow. You knew it was wrong. You thought it was a prejudice that was beneath the enlightened likes of you. And now, with all this time gone by, here you are in the picture. Looking chubby and pompous.
From The Antagonist by Lynn Coady ©2011. Published by House of Anansi Press.