Written in 1978 in French and first published in English in 1987, George Perec's puzzling and playful novel Life: A User's Manual has been regarded by some as a modern classic, etc. Told in six parts and 99 chapters, plus a preamble and an epilogue, it also has three appendices -- a useful index, a chronology, and an "Alphabetical Checklist of Some of the Stories Narrated in this Manual" -- and it starts with a jigsaw puzzle. Incomprehensible to some, it contains a reference to a West Coast city called Hammertown that poet Peter Culley has taken to be his hometown of Nanaimo, from which has arisen the title for Culley's poetry collection called Hammertown (New Star, 2004).

[BCBW 2004] "Famous Visitor"