Planet Reese. Cordelia Strube
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Praise for Cordelia Strube’s previous work:
“Smart eccentric prose.” (New York Times)
“Often witty and pointedly observant in the face of pain and adversity.” (Newsday)
“A new word is cropping up on the literary landscape. Strubian. So what does it mean? Unflinching. Chock-full of the unflinching. And funny.” (Georgia Straight)
“Cordelia Strube homes in on contemporary life and relationships with uncompromising precision and unfailing wit.” (Nino Ricci)
“In Strube’s work, the characterization is lively and the snappy writing is full of caustic zingers on contemporary urban life and the absurdities of pop culture... Her comic sense is like a perfectly mixed martini: exceedingly dry and potent.” (The Toronto Star)
“Strube’s prose is unadorned yet not stark. The dialogue is absolutely dynamite... A unique voice in Canadian fiction... compulsively readable.” (Quill & Quire)
“Strube peels back the fast-food, tabloid cynicism that shrink-wraps urban life and shows us the dark matter beneath... a compelling ride.” (The National Post)
“Strube has a powerful way of dragging the reader right into her characters’ heads... The story is told with such humour and suspense that it’s hard to put down... As with all her novels, she picks diamonds out of the ashes.” (The Globe & Mail)
“Most writers either create great characters or propulsive plots: Strube nails both, with gusto, and then does her best to save the planet along the way... marvelous dialogue and biting insights that stay with you for a long time.” (The Ottawa Citizen)
“Flawless structure, perfectly tuned dialogue and dozens of brilliant cameo appearances by a huge cast of supporting minor characters... Strube has a rare talent for painting beautiful losers and making you love characters who in real life would be unbearable.” (Montreal Mirror)
“Strube’s portraits of characters caught in urban angst are riddled with laugh-out-loud humour... her rueful insistence on contemplating human darkness is tempered by a certain wistfulness, a yearning for something finer, a flicker of hope that is never quite extinguished. Strube’s mandate has always been to unsettle, not merely entertain.” (The Edmonton Journal)
“Wonderfully precise dialogue and descriptive passages weave their magic without pyrotechnics or laboured imagery. Strube’s assured prose creates a teeming, ordinary world that is utterly fascinating... As readers we are walked through contempt, aversion, recognition and then, finally, hope. It’s a marvelous journey.” (Halifax Daily News)
“Strube deftly navigates around the human heart in a way reminiscent of Carol Shields.” (Books in Canada)
“Strube’s descriptions and observations of cultural and urban life are sharp as knives. One of the best novelists around, a writer to rejoice in and embrace.” (Ottawa Xpress)
PLANET REESE
by cordelia
STRUBE
Copyright E Cordelia Strube, 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of
review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy
should be requested from Access Copyright.
Editor: Barry Jowett
Copy-editor: Andrea Waters
Design: Alison Carr
Illustrations: Carson Linnéa Strube Healey
Printer: Friesens
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Strube, Cordelia, n.d.
Planet Reese / Cordelia Strube.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55002-684-9
I. Title.
PS8587.T72975P53 2007 C813’.54 C2007-900086-X
1 2 3 4 5 11 10 09 08 07
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book.
The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any
references or credits in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
Printed and bound in Canada.
Printed on recycled paper.
The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the
Ontario Arts Council.
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Also by Cordelia Strube
NOVELS
Alex & Zee
Milton’s Elements
Teaching Pigs to Sing
Dr. Kalbfleisch & The Chicken Restaurant
The Barking Dog
Blind Night
STAGE AND RADIO PLAYS
Fine
Mortal
Shape
Scar Tissue
Attached
Caught in the Intersection
Marshmallow
Mid-Air
Absconder
On the Beach
Past Due
For B.H.
The magician unwraps a stick of Juicy Fruit and chews on it vigorously. “It’s for my ears,” he explains. “Otherwise, kaboom.” He balls the wrapper then palms it, revealing an empty hand to Reese. “I might be working