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** 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

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