Toby: a man

Finished February 10
Toby: a man by Todd Babiak
Toby grew up in Montreal and now works for a TV station there doing a show on etiquette for the modern man. The night before the election, Toby finds his father sitting in his parents' driveway in their car, which is on fire. Trying to cope with this incident, his father's increasingly strange behaviour, and his own lack of courage in dealing with it, Toby struggles through the night. Faced with the added distress of the betrayal of his girlfriend, he undergoes a minor meltdown on live television. This causes him to lose his job. Having lived beyond his means in order to play the "successful man about town," he swiftly also loses his car and condo and is living back in his parents' basement.
When a brief encounter with a female in distress leads her to dump her toddler on him without warning and disappear, his life becomes something he doesn't recognize. As he takes the advice of old friends and family, he finds a new purpose to his life and finds that being a man means more than handkerchiefs and dressing well. A real eye-opener.