Gregory Simpson is quitting smoking. No patch, no nicotine gum. His plan is to keep his hands busy and his mind distracted by writing something down every time he craves a cigarette. Unfortunately, everything he thinks to write about has something to do with smoking. In the first throes of withdrawal, Simpson writes in tense fits and starts, desperately bouncing between reminiscences of a life - beginning with his birth to a tobacconist father and a virulently anti-smoking mother to his current work for the local smoking ...
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Gregory Simpson is quitting smoking. No patch, no nicotine gum. His plan is to keep his hands busy and his mind distracted by writing something down every time he craves a cigarette. Unfortunately, everything he thinks to write about has something to do with smoking. In the first throes of withdrawal, Simpson writes in tense fits and starts, desperately bouncing between reminiscences of a life - beginning with his birth to a tobacconist father and a virulently anti-smoking mother to his current work for the local smoking advocacy group, the Suicide Club - that has been shaped by, in fact built from, his relationship with cigarettes. He has spent his adult life hilariously embroiled in addiction both to nicotine and to the tobacco companies' carefully crafted public image of cigarettes. All of his intimate personal relationships have risen and fallen on the basis of their ability to compete with or incorporate his fascination with smoking. Even his cat has developed a predilection for sniffing ashtrays. As Simpson's ability to concentrate improves, he begins to recognize the insidiousness of tobacco in his life. But today being today, his habit is no longer just personal, but political, and the tobacco companies have a vested interest in keeping him smoking.
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Add this copy of X20: a Novel of "Not" Smoking to cart. $69.09, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Arcade Publishing.
Add this copy of X20: a Novel of "Not" Smoking to cart. $72.93, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from North Las Vegas, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1997 by Arcade Publishing.
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