Five Legs

First published by Anansi in 1969, Five Legs was a breakthrough for Canadian experimental fiction, selling 1,000 copies in its first week. Five Legs is the subversive tale of two guilt-ridden young men, Lucan Crackell and Felix Oswald-one a professor, the other his student-caught in the grip of the North American Protestant ethic, with its emotional web-spinning and sexual torments. Gibson captures both their mortifications and their spirited resistance to all things WASP, themselves included, in stream-of-consciousness prose that is at once fluid, disjointed, and hilarious. This is essential reading for any Canlit junkie, and quite a trip.