MSGID: 1:396/45.29@fidonet f823496a   
   REPLY: 1:153/757.21@fidonet f81b3c51   
   PID: OpenXP/5.0.51 (Win32)   
   CHRS: CP437 2   
   TZUTC: -0500   
   ** On Tuesday 04.01.22 - 19:59, August Abolins wrote to George Pope:   
      
    GP>> I'm gettinhg this book, it sounds like the kiind of   
    GP>> irreverent comedy I love  most in a novel!   
      
    AA> The accolades are extensive. Hope you like it.  I'm going   
    AA> to give it a go myself. Some other comments about it refer   
    AA> to the dry humor style of Hitchhicker's Guide to the   
    AA> Galaxy, satirical.  I liked Vonnegut's humour too.   
      
      
   An update on "Dirty Birds, by Morgan Murray".  I'm lovin' it.      
   The satire is pratically non-stop.   Excerpt:   
      
   "Saskatchewan is the distillation of geography into the purest   
   mathematical form of utilitarian colonial averageness.   
      
   "It's what happens when history and landscape are erased, and a   
   kind of bland Victorian modernist utopia is designed from   
   scratch by bureaucrats who had never seen a prairie sky in its   
   full spring fury, who had never had a whiff of native prairie   
   grasses in late summer, who had never had their nostrils freeze   
   shut in a cold prairie winter   
      
   "The Queen's Own Rulers and Her Majesty's Protractors drew a   
   perfect rectangle in the middle of an imperfect continent.   
   Nothing to define it but four lines drawn arbitrarily through   
   the southern dust and northern bogs and then cut into a million   
   perfect six-mile, then mile, then half-mile squares. Just   
   squares within squares within one massive square. Everything in   
   two dimensions. Everything straight, everything flat. Infinite   
   flatness. Infinite.   
      
   I think the book might be more enjoyable for folks who are     
   somewhat familiar who Leonard Cohen is, the streets of     
   Montreal, and perhaps a lil'bit of french.   
      
   This description of Montreal was interesting:   
      
   "Montreal the mega-city is spread across the Hochelaga     
   Archipelago-a bunch of islands at the confluence of the St.     
   Lawrence and Ottawa rivers. The two biggest islands, Ile     
   Montr‚al and Ile J‚sus, make the shape of a pair of lips.."   
      
   Another bit:   
      
   "Milton's trek through the park nearly killed him.   
      
   "It was only a kilometre, but he could have sworn it was   
   equivalent to the entire length of Ellesmere Island. He   
   staggered the last few feet across avenue du Mont-Royal and   
   onto the sidewalk in front of a McDonald's.   
      
   "Out of the wind he collapsed onto his deflated duct-taped   
   sack. He lay there for a long while, catching his breath,   
   collecting his thoughts, contemplating his manhood, slowly   
   freezing to death. A woman walked by and put three quarters in   
   his hand.   
      
   "Quel dommage, c'est terrible!"   
      
   "Milton had lost his will to go on. He was sure he was going to   
   die there, in a pile, on the sidewalk in front of a McDonald's.   
   Another stranger handed him a couple nickels.   
      
   "The custom of giving new arrivals loose change struck him as   
   odd, but also a bit delightful. What a kind and generous place,   
   he thought, as someone handed him an entire loonie.   
      
   I'm much further along in the book now.  I'm captivated by the     
   main bloke's advercity and the down-on-his-luck situations.   
   --   
     ../|ug   
      
   --- OpenXP 5.0.51   
    * Origin: Age Doesn't Matter Unless You're a Cheese (1:396/45.29)   
   SEEN-BY: 15/0 105/81 106/201 124/5014 5016 129/305 153/7715 229/426   
   SEEN-BY: 229/428 664 700 280/464 282/1038 292/854 301/1 320/219 322/757   
   SEEN-BY: 387/25 26 28 396/45 712/848 2320/105   
   PATH: 396/45 229/426