#FridayReads, May 31–”Canada” and “United Breaks Guitars”

#FridayReads, May 31–Richard Ford’s mesmerizing Canada, which I blogged about earlier this week, and am savoring. The hapless bank robbers in it, teenage narrator Dell Parsons’ parents, remind me of the crooks played by Al Pacino and John Cazale that try to pull of the bank heist in Sidney Lumet’s great 1975 film, Dog Day Afternoon: utterly heedless of the consequences of their actions. I’ve also begun reading United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice In the Age of Social Media, Canadian musician Dave Carroll’s good-humored personal account of how an airline manhandled his Taylor guitar, then refused to take responsibility for their bad conduct until he humiliated them with mocking videos which drew more than a million viewers on YouTube. Inspiring.

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