It's 2004 and Liz Dunn, in her own words "overweight and lonely woman in her 40's" is writing a journal, in here she relates her childhood years, from finding a severed body of a transvestite in a railway track to sneaking on other people's home, not to steal but just "to sit and stare at the family pics" and a high school trip to Rome.

To the era of the last Haley's Bop comet in 1997, when Liz, lonely yet quite okay with the setup of living by herself, showing for work, renting videos and her condo living receives an emergency call from the hospital about a patient named Jeremy.

All of a sudden Liz's world is catapulted to a never ending examining of what ifs and a race against time to make up for a regrettable decision she made years back. A catapult that will take her into a trip across the world to find the answer to the question that has puzzled her since that school trip to Rome.

All told with a heartfelt honesty that serves as a prelude to a wonderful journey that will climax with Liz while hunched in an airplane seat just above Reykjavik, Iceland in 2004, finally getting that new perspective in life .

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It's Douglas Coupeland, master of the profound, venturing into a soul of a character not likely of other novels, but very much about the average human being, it can be any of us, the feelings of loneliness, being invisible, unwanted, regrets, Liz Dunn takes us there, to have us realize every words as true, thinking "yeah i've felt that before".

In "Hey Nostradamus" Coupeland takes us how to deal with a tragedy and lost love, in "All Families Are Psychotic" he shows us the craziness of a family all sewn up by one major thread, which is love for one another.

In "Eleanor Rigby", there are patterns of close family ties, while at the same time showing us the brewing distance that a once close knit family encounters when everybody starts growing old, having a family of their own. In here Liz Dunn a self confessed loner is besieged with a caring brother and sister a worried Mother who still lectures her at the same time Liz wonders if she ever makes her proud.

"Eleanor Rigby" while named after the Beatles song about a lonely woman who waits for love by her window, the similarities ends there, aside from being Liz's email (eleanorrigby@arctic.ca) Liz wasn't looking for anything, life as a loner is a gift yet at the same time a curse, it just so happens that when Jeremy arrives in her life, she was left without a choice but to steer different from the path that she expects to thread for the rest of her life.

How one event brought on from an encounter buried in the past can shake things up and provides someone like Liz a real shot at happiness, is both endearing and riveting.

If there's a writer that writes for the underdog it's Douglas Coupland, if there's anyone who could make me read a novel that is narrated by a 44 year old woman, chubby, un-attractive, self confessed loner with "chick lit" written all over, i guess it's Douglas Coupland, not exactly my kind of book genre. But i like it nonetheless, good enough to stay in my shelf for a long time.
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Written in three stages of working class Joe Martin's life, first part happened in the year 1977, the definitive Punk era of the Clash, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Sham 69 and the likes.

Growing up in a sleepy town in the UK countryside called the sloughs, with fellow mates Smiles, Chris and Dave, they went on with their life, listening to punk bands, going to pubs that plays reggae music, disco girls, being beaten up, beating poofs ( a term for homo's ).

Life is sweet for Joe Martin, he's got the best mates, a summer job picking cherries with the gypsies until one nasty event when he and his best mate Smiles was beaten up and thrown at the grand union canal.

Fast forward to 1988, Joe Martin is now working at a pub in Hongkong away from the memories of home until a news from home forces him to make the long journey across central asia, moscow and London aboard the Trans Siberian Express, as he prepares himself in coming to terms with a tragedy.

Last part is the present day, year 2000, Joe Martin is working as a DJ, selling fight and concert tickets, life is sweet again until a face from the past made him re deal with the fallout of the year 1977.

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i really loved the 1977 part, it clearly defines the punk era of that time, when people talk about "PUNK" i only seem to recognize that movement in the 70's clearly no other punk bands had succeeded to even come close as the ones in those years...there's a lot of reference to the importance of bands like The Clash, The Sex Pistols and The Jam is mentioned over and over again throughout the story. Joe sums it up best by saying,

“Some people get their ideas from books, but for us lot the likes of Rotten, Strummer, Pursey and Weller were the best writers, producing the sort of literature that dealt with our lives. They didn’t need to fake anything, do any research, just wrote what was already festering inside them and connected with millions of other people who felt the same way.”

“Human Punk” also has the requisite drinking, fighting, fucking, humor and social commentary that makes this one a juicy read.

After reading this feel free to refer to those who pissed you off as "cunT" ( with capital T )

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I finally snagged a copy courtesy of Fully booked at gateway mall, by far the best bookstore in the country..Truman Capote's masterpiece about the true killings of a family in a small town in Kansas.

Capote read an article depicting the killings, became interested, went down there to dig further into the crime.

the result is "best true-crime novel you ever couldn't put down"

Capote wrote it in chapters
1 is "the last one to see them alive"
in here he depicts the Clutter family as how they are perceived in their community, the father is a rancher, well respected in a town where no ones bother to locked up their doors, his wife who had some bouts with depression or mental illness, the Clutters have 3 daughters and a son...most prominent of whom is the youngest daughter Nancy...

reading this chapter makes you much closer to the Clutters, makes you think they are one of your next door neighbors, and the fate that awaits them makes it more shocking and profound.

2: is persons unknown
tells the story of the people who would be involved in the massacre, a clear and valid look at the world of the would be killers, its a fine read, keeps you magnetize, it will make you double check the door before you sleep, make sure it is locked...

3. is the answer here Capote vividly details the crime itself, the reasons based on the important files and interviews he had with the investigators, witnesses and clues gather on the crime scene.

4.was a detailed description of the investigation...

i hope i never spoiled anything, if you want to read a great crime novel, this one is for you...not for the fainthearted though...

In Cold Blood will remain one of literature's finest gifts to all of us...i had a great time reading it, as harrowing is the subject or the story, its one hell of a ride, makes me sick of the world, the violence, also makes me understand the deepest depth a human soul can venture into...

no one is safe...lock your doors before you sleep...

here are some of the review of Truman Capote's "In cold blood"

"one of the stupendous books of the decade" - sunday express
"the best example of the new journalism" - tom wolfe
"this book has not dated one iota and is a must for every self respecting reader and would be writer" - Cris Sullivan ( LOADED )
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