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Sto caricando le informazioni... Binge: 60 stories to make your brain feel differentdi Douglas Coupland
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Premi e riconoscimenti
NATIONAL BESTSELLER The first new work of fiction since 2013 from one of Canada's most successful, idiosyncratic and world-defining writers, Douglas Coupland. He's called it Binge because it's impossible to read just one. Imagine feeling 100% alive every moment of every minute of the day! Maybe that's how animals live. Or trees, even. I sometimes stare at the plastic bag tree visible from my apartment window and marvel that both it and I are equally alive and that there's no sliding scale of life. You're either alive, or you're not. Or you're dead or you're not. Thirty years after Douglas Coupland broke the fiction mould and defined a generation with Generation X, he is back with Binge, 60 stories laced with his observational profundity about the way we live and his existential worry about how we should be living: the very things that have made him such an influential and bestselling writer. Not to mention that he can also be really funny. Here the narrators vary from story to story as Doug catches what he calls "the voice of the people," inspired by the way we write about ourselves and our experiences in online forums. The characters, of course, are Doug's own: crackpots, cranks and sweetie-pies, dad dancers and perpetrators of carbecues. People in the grip of unconscionable urges; lonely people; dying people; silly people. If you love Doug's fiction, this collection is like rain on the desert. Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
Discussioni correntiNessunoCopertine popolari
 Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classificazione LCVotoMedia: (3.71)
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1
Review of the Random House Canada hardcover edition (October 2021)
It didn't take very long into reading Binge: 60 stories to make your brain feel different that I realized there were going to be connections between the stories. Knowing in advance that this would frustrate me into having to search back for the earlier mentions, I started to make notes after each sitting of several stories. These are copied below under Spoiler, as some of them give away details, although mostly I tried to stick to setups. Yes, the reason actress Courteney Cox from the Bruce Springsteen Dancing in the Dark video is on the cover photo is explained in story #27 Dad Dancing.
So the 2 rating is primarily because of disappointment that the story crossovers didn't really go anywhere. There were no major resolutions for any of the several ongoing plotlines or for several of the one-offs. It just kind of fizzled out. I guess there is also a bit of anger that I put in the extra work for no seeming benefit. Anyway, on to the next book...
1. Alexa The title character has an eidetic memory which is an inconvenience in their life until they become an artist. They observe a series of name tags (which after a while starts to look like the names of all the people in the rest of the stories, except several key ones are missing).
2. Radiation Craig and Lucy host a party for Craig's 40th birthday. Nathan, Claire, Noah, Jeannie, Tom & 1 other adult attend. Noah reveals that he is being treated for thyroid cancer. There are children Howard (son of Craig) and Simone (daughter of Claire) and 3 smaller kids. They all observe an eagle stealing crow chicks from a nest.
3. Splenda 18-year-old Olivia, who has Cystic Fibrosis, has escaped from her religion obsessed parents who had not allowed her to have medical treatments. She lives in a basement apartment where her neighbour is Erik aka Trashe Blanche, a drag queen. Olivia has a compulsion to steal Splenda sweetener packets from restaurants.
4. Rhnull Lorraine has the rare RH null blood type. She marries researcher Steffan and moves to France where they have a daughter Kelli, who also has the RH null blood type. She discovers Steffan is selling her blood to other researchers.
5. Thong Logan, a younger brother of Erik (from 3.) talks about his red thong underwear which he says is attractive to women. He reveals that he killed someone 21 years ago. Because Erik has sent his DNA in for hereditary analysis, Logan believes the authorities will trace him for the murder through the familial connection.
6. Theme Park The unnamed story teller and Sarah meet cute at a bargain basement theme park where they were playing mascots Rooster Rick and Miss Belle in chicken costumes.
7. Airplane Mode Erik (from 3.) is taking an airplane to a Florida drag convention when they are targeted by airport security based on the objections of a conservative couple. Erik manages to get Olivia (from 3.) to call in a false allergy tip which gets the couple removed from the plane.
8.Lube A divorced unnamed man in his early 60s is filmed by a drone while pleasuring himself on his rooftop patio. Eventually his boss at work discovers the video on the web.
9. Incel Ben, who self-identifies as an incel, travels to Florida on the same flight as Erik (from 3. & 7.), who gives him romance advice.
10. Team Building Carl, Peg, Lance and an identified storyteller are at a 4-day team building conference from work in Irvine, California. Carl annoys Peg by constantly telling restaurant staff that it is her birthday (every day) and getting the staff to serve pancakes or cakes with sparklers.
11. Vegan The unnamed vegan storyteller gets memed when she is filmed puking in a 7-11 over a hotdog. She confronts one of the memers named Dylan at her high-school digital club, and he turns out to be vegan as well, so they meet cute.
12. Gum Deena is in a grocery store to buy gum as an alibi during a crime that she has contracted for. Behind her are several people including a no-name biker, Wayne (presumably the name of 8.) buying lube, Sarah, Beth, Kellyann (who has forgotten her baby in the car), Janelle and you. Various flashforwards tell you the future of some of the characters.
13. Unleaded The unnamed storyteller talks about all his affairs while his wife Leah was dying and in palliative care. He also is in a store ensuring an alibi while an end-of-life procedure happens to his wife. He might have been in the line during 12. but was not described in that story.
14. Lego The unnamed storyteller and Dylan from 11. make up an event for the school fair using discarded fake Lego blocks. They unknowingly trigger an ex-student, now-homeless man's flashback about molestation by the school's football coach.
15. Resting Bitch Face A dentist named Vaughn suggests to his patient Kim that if she took botox injections it would make her face look more pleasant.
16. Lurking Account Leah from 13. lurks on dating sites to monitor her husband Duncan's (now identified from 13.) affairs. She herself is having an affair with her nurse Matteo in hospice. Her friend Erik (from 3. 7. etc.) comes to visit her in hospice.
17. Hip Hotels Sue and Horace (Orazio) meet cute while she is on her undercover job of rating the hotels in her chain.
18. 23andme The at-first-unnamed storyteller talks about how he and his friends drifted away from Dean, whose cabin they used to party at. His girlfriend Casey suggests he reconcile but he ends up accidentally killing Dean. We realize he is Logan from story #5.
19. Sharpies The unnamed storyteller meets a panhandler Isaac and a broke Julie outside the liquor store. Isaac's sign is drawn with sharpie pens. Isaac is possibly the homeless man in 14. They are going to the hospital to get the gash in Isaac's leg looked at.
20. Romcom The unnamed storyteller is a 52 year old single woman who has given up on ever finding a partner. She meets an old friend Adrian who is now a sex worker. Adrian advises her on how to act if she is ever hit by a car and wants to claim insurance money.
21. Subway Julie aka Rumwoman from #19. attends an AA meeting and adds more to that same story with Ned and Isaac. Ned buys them sandwiches from Subway.
22. Hyundai Kellyann (from #12.) tells the background story of how she forgot that she had her baby in the car.
23. Southwest Airlines Ex-heart surgeon Dr. Jones talks about how he became a back alley doctor. He makes disparaging comments about Southwest Airline workers. He is the doctor that Ned & Julie take Isaac (in #19.) to have his gash stitched up, since they can't go to a real hospital.
24. Tinder M: 28 and F: 34 have a road rage incident. They later go on a blind date through the Tinder dating app and recognize each other, but they make up and meet cute by bonding over coffee, no dairy and vegan lemon loaf.
25. NSFL = Not Safe for Life, i.e. traumatizing events that never leave you. Isaac (from 14. 19. 21. 23. etc) tells the backstory about how he was groomed by the school's football coach.
26. Gender Reveal Party During the pandemic, the narrator breaks away from lockdown to attend her friend Macy's gender reveal party. Her husband Christian breaks away to have an affair. Their kids Brandon and Kellie break away to play on the neighbour's trampoline. While they are all away the house catches fire due to a soldering tool of Christian's short circuiting.
27. Dad-Dancing The father of Nate and Ella turns his embarrassing dad-dancing habit into a money making venture on YouTube with his dad friend Keith and others. This story finally ties into the Courteney Cox cover by mentioning that his dad-dancing is an imitation of her appearance on the Bruce Springsteen 'Dancing in the Dark' video.
28. Laptop The unnamed storyteller is a laptop repairman who laments the amount of pron that he finds on the laptops he repairs (which he admittedly copies for his own amusement).
29. Karen The business manager of the Dancing Dads (from 27.) confesses she is a racist and homophobic, but that she is attracted to black dad Derek.
30. Taco Bell A deaf woman talks about how people react to her. She hooks up with Dancing Dad Derek (from 27. & 29.) after meeting him outside a Taco Bell restaurant.
31. Kirkland Products Chloe who works as a cashier at Costco makes a staff suggestion to get people to middlename their kids as Kirkland in exchange for $ from Costco. After that success, she joins Karen in marketing the Dancing Dads.
32. Search History The storyteller divorces her husband Ken after discovering porn via the internet at the library. Her adult kids Laura (single w/ flower shop) and Jenny (married, 3 kids) are ok with it. Her son Luke who never leaves his bedroom is not.
33. Clickbait The initially unnamed storyteller (later revealed as John) kids their mother about clicking on baited articles on the internet. He has an uncle Greg. His wife is Hayley and son is Mason. While visiting they go through their mother's internet search history (which includes dad dancing).
34. 18+ The unnamed storyteller F-28 tells of shaving herself in an effort to tempt her boyfriend Jeff to take her to Burning Man. Mistakes occur.
35. SPF 90 Jayden, a teenager is volunteered by his mother (on the advice of aunt Celia) to assist the local reverend Gerald Harris with parish office work for the summer. The reverend has very pale skin.
36. Lotto A 23-year old still living at his mother's house, never leaves his bedroom. He has won millions on the online Lotto through various flaws in the system and his own statistical tricks. He is interested in the quirky girl who lives in a basement apartment next door.
37. Gaga An unnamed woman has 2 parents who contract early onset dementia. She and her husband Daniel worry about it being hereditary for their child.
38. Liz Claiborne Sheets A Canadian border guard laments the amount of lies that he hears from travelers. His coworker Judith and supervisor Brenda are especially tough on people and the guard's own parents suffer an inspection.
39. IKEA Ball Pit A germaphobe named Jordan meets cute with another germaphobe Jody post SARS. They get married in an IKEA ball pit. 14 years later... COVID.
40. Bic Lighter Two 17-year-olds, Dylan and the unnamed storyteller torch a car that is double parked in disabled parking when no one else will do anything about it.
41. Dasani A mudlarking metal scavenger finds an old Dasani bottle with a note inside it from someone named Katinka. They go to Katinka's house and meet her mother Ally.
42. Oxy The unnamed storyteller talks about seeking a hitman to get rid of their spouse Paul. They hire Grant but then also get rid of Grant using oxy-fentanyl. Eventually they get rid of their daughter Kayella's tattoo artist boyfriend as well.
43. Effexor Ally (from 41.) talks about how Clem (also from 41. & now identified) came over with the Dasani bottle with Katy (Katinka)'s last message. She mentions that her son Terry, a tattoo artist (presumably from 42.) was also dead. Clem offers to come clean Ernie's boat.
44. Rubbermaid Tubs An unnamed florist who is a survivalist talks about wanting to go to New Zealand when the apocalypse comes. They have their essentials packed in rubbermaid tubs.
45. CCTV Kayella (from 42.) talks about her tattoo artist boyfriend dying from an overdose. She is now with Nathaniel (likely the no-name biker in #12) and he has taken her along on his carbecue evidence destroying escapades while avoiding CCTV.
46. Fentanyl An Obit taker at the newspaper takes the obits for Paul the murdered husband of the unnamed storyteller in #42) and for Terry, the overdosed tattoo artist (from 42. & 43.) from the mother Ally.
47. Adderall Cory, a hoarder whose partner Denny died in a car accident, is visited by her younger half-brother Liam and his girlfriend Jane. Jane gives her an adderall tablet saying that it will likely benefit her.
48. Risk Aversion The unnamed storyteller talks about how he almost lost his nest egg through a stock tip from a shady character Vince. Vince is later arrested a different scam and the stock recovers enough that the money is restored.
49. Hoarding Jane (from 47.) revisits Cory (also 47.) and finds that the house has been somewhat cleaned up. Liam later tells her that she'll regret helping out as Cory will relapse.
50. craigslist.org The unnamed storyteller plans her weddings as does her friend Andrea. She hopes to avoid inviting her half-sister Cathy and her autistic son Ian, but has to anyway. With the ceremony ruined she plans revenge and finds a possible method on the buy & sell website craigslist.
51. Clipart A clip art model named Gary is given a nickname by a photographer.
52. Nike Lisa, who does museum displays, includes a fake foot inside a Nike shoe in an aquarium display of plastic waste which upsets some children. We realize that she is the murderous mother in story 42.
53. iPhone A unnamed policeman is assigned to stop a suicide jumper off a bridge. He does so with the aid of Laura in a police helicopter, but 'Sinbad' the jumper's iPhone falls into the river and he is upset about that.
54. LAN A motivational speaker is stuck at home during COVID. He discovers a neighbour is printing questionable material through his home network server. He meets the neighbour, who calls himself 'Jack', with fateful results.
55. Olive Garden Jane (probably not the girlfriend in 47. & 49.) pesters her children Bryanna and Duncan about having kids so that she can be a grandmother. Then the same for her niece Chloe and nephew Darnell. Later her brother's wife Sheila is upset about it. She meets her daughter Bryanna at Olive Garden to talk it all.
56. Dipping Sauce Sharon, a hospital dietician is upset about McDonald's chicken Mcnuggets and chicken wings and vows to become vegetarian and then vegan. Her husband Taylor and sons Taylor Junior and Brandon meanwhile have ordered multiple chicken wings for Superbowl weekend and Sharon moves out of the house.
57. Using Taylor Jnr. from 56. talks about the effects of his mother leaving home, including him becoming addicted to drugs and needing rehab.
58. Starbursts Dan, once a cop (not sure if the same as #53) is now a detective and is following his client's wife Kerry-Ann who is suspected of an affair. He meets cute with her and they share Starburst candies. She reveals that she is only meeting her ex-husband Reid who is transitioning into a woman. Dan and Kerry-Ann become a couple and work as detectives together.
59. DUI Dave goes to his friend Patti's after having a car accident with a mother and her two kids. It was the mother's fault but Dave had been drinking. Patti threatens to turn him in to the authorities and Dave reacts somewhat similarly to Lisa (from 42. & 52.) with a similar disposal method.
60. Norovirus Erik (from #3, #5, #7) gives the backstory of how he became drag queen Trashe Blanche. When working on a cruise ship where the entertainers all sickened with a norovirus and Erik filled in with a quickly put together stage show.