Lisa's Review: Terry

Terry: Terry Fox and His Marathon of Hope by Douglas Coupland

My Review: 5 of 5 Stars

Coupland's book is both a pictorial representation of some of the 100,000+ archived items from The Marathon of Hope and also snippets & stories about Terry Fox from a young adult, through his diagnosis,  Marathon of Hope, and the affect he had on many Canadians.

A brief history to what is presented in this book - Terry Fox is known as a Canadian hero (officially voted as Canada's Greatest Hero in 1999). In 1977, at the age of 18, Terry had his leg amputated above the knee as a result of a cancer diagnosis. While in the hospital, he hatched the idea of completing a run across Canada, from the East to West Coast - the plan was to run a marathon every day for 200 days, raising awareness and funds for cancer research along the way. His goal was to raise $1 for every Canadian ($24 million) in his Marathon of Hope. In 1980 he began his run. He was forced to stop 143 days & 3,339 miles later in Thunder Bay, Ontario as the cancer had spread to his lungs. Less than a year later he succumbed to the disease - by then his story & mission had affected the nation. According to the Terry Fox Foundation, as of May 2014 over $640 million has been raised for cancer research in Terry's name.

As a 10-year old, I diligently followed every news story I could about Terry & The Marathon of Hope. I cut out every story I could find in the newspaper & pasted them in a scrapbook. As I read through Coupland's book, I kept thinking to myself that it was like an excellently executed adult version of a scrapbook. The pictures of artifacts, journal entries, stories, letters, and tidbits of information were put together beautifully - it all transported me back to my 10 year-old self.

"Even though I die of cancer my spirit didn't die and that should influence a lot of people." Terry Fox, 12/22/1980.

This is my first book read for the 8th Annual Canadian Book Challenge.

Happy Canada Day!

I made it to maple syrup!
I completed the 6th Annual Canadian Book Challenge, hosted by the Book Mine Set. Here is my list of 13 books by or about Canadians:

The Merry Heart by Robertson Davies
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery *
Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley
Twenty-six by Leo McKay, Jr. *
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
Generation X by Douglas Coupland
A Short History of Canada by Desmond Morton
A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
The Kids' Book of Canada by Barbara Greenwood
Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg
The Salterton Trilogy by Robertson Davies
I am Half Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley

* Thanks to my friend Lisa for lending me these books!

Review: Generation X

Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
by Douglas Coupland

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

My first impression of this book as I read it was that it seemed like a good depiction of the zeitgeist of 20-somethings at the end of the 20th century. What makes it impressive is that it was written in 1991. The book reminded me a lot of the movie Reality Bites, which is a great movie that came out in 1994 (it may owe a debt to this book as inspiration).


There were a variety of points in the story where I totally understood where the characters were coming from. For example:

"Okay, yes, I think to myself, they were ugly times. But they were also the only times I'll ever get--genuine capital H history times, before history was turned into a press release, a marketing strategy, and a cynical campaign tool." (p. 151, referring to the Vietnam era)

There were also just some great passages in the book:

"'How are poeple ever going to help themselves if they can't grab onto a fragment of your own horror? People want that little fragment, they need it. That little piece of lung makes their own fragments less scary.' I'm still looking for a description of storyteling as vital as this." (p.13, explaining why people tell their stories at AA meetings)

"...Toronto, Canada, a city that when I once visited gave the efficient, ordered feel of the Yellow Pages sprung to like in three dimensions, peppered with trees and veined with cold water." (p.18)

Where it didn't work for me, and thus got only 3 stars, is that the "plot" didn't really exist and the book seemed more like random vignettes from the characters' lives than a cohesive story. I did think the ending really worked well.

Coupland lives in West Vancouver, B.C. and if you ever had a McJob or are part of Generation X, you only know to call it that because of this book.