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The Story

Jackson is a young man with an appetite for many things, including words. But faced with parents on the brink of break-up, a love interest going sour, and a refrigerator that lacks anything edible, he finds it hard to come up with the right words to solve his problems.

Just when the world seems most dismal, however, it is words – the written kind – that come to the rescue. Jackson discovers he has the bizarre ability to project himself physically into books that he reads. It takes a horrifying and hilarious series of misadventures to lead him back home to a real meal once again.

Reviews

“Major’s narrative turns are by turns funny, frightening, moving and always effective. It’s a gem in an already valued and distinct body of work.” Toronto Star

“Kevin Major’s new book is something else again… Brassy and sarcastic, dripping with irony, (it) makes fun of everything from itself to its teenage hero, his disenchanted parents, ‘The Odyssey,’ brand names, and in the book’s tour de force, literary censorship.” Globe and Mail

Awards

Canadian Library Association Book-of-the-Year
Ann Conner Brimer Award

Shortlisted

Ruth Schwartz Award

Author’s Comments

This was my first attempt at writing a comic novel. It didn’t go over well with my editor at the time. She thought I should put it aside and go back to being my more serious self. That publisher and I parted company. I found another editor, one with a belief in the merits of the book. He was as pleased as I was when the published novel won a couple of awards. Sometimes it takes a strong will on the part of a writer to make a turn in a new direction. And as for Jackson, of all the characters who have make their way into my books, he’s still one of my favourites.

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