SOURCE: A review of Teeth of My Father, in Fiddlehead, Vol. 105, Spring, 1975, pp. 123–26.

In the following review of Teeth of My Father, Brennan praises Metcalf's satirical and bitter tone.

One is not surprised to learn that a couple of John Metcalf's avowedly autobiographical characters were eager collectors of butterflies in their past. The patience to wait, to stalk and then to pounce, the ability to skewer the victim and devote careful attention to his variegated hues are all key elements of Metcalf's story telling style. There are not many writers in Canada who have real venom. There is Richler, of course, but few others who can, like Metcalf, make you laugh out loud at the accuracy of their barbs.

In “Beryl” for example, he presents the stumbling comic opera of an inexperienced, romantic university student and a blunt, practical factory girl. He reels off a string of incongruous...