MY BOOKS, MY PLACE
Daniel MacIvor, the distracted reader
DANIEL MACIVOR
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
Published
I’ve never been a curl-up-in-a-quiet-place-with-a-good-book kind of person. Mostly, I like to read in places where I have to fight distractions; in airports, in restaurants, in noisy parks. The distraction helps me create a greater focus. I do read in bed as well, because I’m constantly fighting the distraction of sleep.
The book I’m reading now is The Final Testament of the Holy Bible, by James Frey. It’s the story of the return of the Christ in the guise of a contemporary bisexual, recovering alcoholic who moves into an inner-city housing project.
It’s classic Frey, provocative yet heartbreaking. I’ve been a fan of Frey’s since A Million Little Pieces. When that book first came out, I read the review in The Globe and Mail and bought the book that day – well before Oprah blessed and then later damned it.
It remains one of the truest feeling books I’ve ever read on addiction, and his Bright Shiny Morning is probably the best book written on modern life in Los Angeles. I love his work because it feels authentic to the brutality of modern life without dismissing the light in all of us that fights to shine.
Daniel MacIvor is a Canadian actor, playwright, theatre director and film director. His play His Greatness is currently onstage at Factory Theatre in Toronto.