Eleanor Rigby

I've just started reading Douglas Coupland's latest book Eleanor Rigby. It's amazing. I've read all fiction books by this guy. He has a way of talking about life, life as it is for ordinary people. Seeing the little details. He often deals with loneliness and the purpose of our lives. But all that is weaved in the story of the characters of his books. I'd like to quote the first couple of lines in his new book:

I had always thought that a person born blind and given sight later on in life through the miracles of modern medicine would feel reborn. Just imagine looking at our world with brand new eyes, everything fresh, covered with dew and charged with beauty - pale skin and yellow daffodils, boiled lobster and a full moon. And yet I've read books that tell me this isn't the way newly created vision plays out in real life. Gifted with sight, previously blind patients become frightened and confused. They can't make sense of shape or color or depth. My brother, William, says, "Well, think about it, Liz - kids lie in their cribs for nearly a year watching hand puppets and colorful toys come and go. They're dumb as planks, and it takes them a long time to even twig to the notion of where they end and the world begins. Why should it be any different just because you're older and technically wiser?"
In the end, those gifted with new eyesight tend to retreat into their own world. Some beg to be made blind again, yet when they consider it further, they hesitate, and realize they're unable to surrender their sight. Bad visions are better than no visions.

Douglas Copeland certainly has a feel for the human nature.