[citation needed] His second novel, The Grammar Architect (2006), is a "cover" of a Thomas Hardy book, A Pair of Blue Eyes,[2] using some of the plot, imagery, themes and even some passages of the original and creating something new and personal out of that.
[7][8] The New York critic David Gutowski called it "one of the year's finest novels, symphonic in structure and spectacular on a sentence level.
"[11] Toronto Star reviewer Brett Josef Grubisic wrote that the novel reminded him of the flamboyant, American musician Liberace.
"Tasty in small bites and impressive as an antic literary performance, the novel’s structure gradually buckles under the sheer mass of extravagant decoration.
"[12] Globe and Mail reviewer Jade Colbert called it "a dense text, and it reproduces the prejudices of fin de siècle Europe, which can make for difficult reading, though there are also sections when this novel opens up and sings.