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Fiction General

Generica

or Generica

by (author) Will Ferguson

Publisher
Penguin Group Canada
Initial publish date
Apr 2001
Category
General
  • Audio cassette

    ISBN
    9780864923264
    Publish Date
    Aug 2001
    List Price
    $24.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780140299847
    Publish Date
    Apr 2001
    List Price
    $24

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Out of print

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Description

Edwin de Valu, an overworked editor at Panderic Press, is in trouble. The weekly editorial meeting isn't going well and he needs a hit for the upcoming fall season. In desperation he presents a previously rejected self-help manuscript, "What I Learned on the Mountain,"by Tupak Soiree.

Much to Edwin's chagrin, the project is accepted. But even from the early editorial stages there are ominous signs that the manuscript may be more than Edwin ever bargained for. A janitor who reads the manuscript is suddenly transformed into a millionaire philanthropist. After skimming through the paragraphs on "sexual realignment,"Edwin's wife eagerly turns their marriage bed into a passion pit of artful sexual techniques.

After publication, the book becomes an instant bestseller. But can this self-help book be the real thing? Dismayed by the plague of happiness that ensues, Edwin seeks to get to the bottom of the mysteries of Tupak Soiree and the book he unleashed on our unsuspecting world.

In this satirical, fast-paced novel, Ferguson skewers society's obsession with self-improvement and pokes fun at generational divides.

About the author

Travel writer and novelist Will Ferguson is the author of several award-winning memoirs, including Beyond Belfast, about a 560-mile walk across Northern Ireland in the rain; Hitching Rides with Buddha, about an end-to-end journey across Japan by thumb; and most recently the humour collection Canadian Pie, which includes his travels from Yukon to PEI.

Ferguson's novels include Happiness™, a satire set in the world of self-help publishing, and Spanish Fly, a coming-of-age tale of con men and call girls set amid the jazz clubs of the Great Depression. His work, which has been published in more than twenty languages around the world, has been nominated for both an IMPAC Dublin Award and a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and he is a three-time winner of the Leacock Medal.

www.willferguson.com

 

Will Ferguson's profile page

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