Trader
{4.5/5} “Part of who we are is dependent on our memories, on where we’ve been and what’s we’ve done with our lives, how the past has shaped us. But part of it depends on how others see us, too. If everybody treats you like a loser, it’s hard not to be a loser. Buddy treats me like the one good thing that’s ever been in his life and I find myself responding to that responsibility.”
Trader by Charles de Lint, published in 1997
Max Trader makes guitars out of wood. One day he wakes up in a stranger’s body. Just as he’s getting around to dealing with the concept that he’s switched bodies with this buy, two angry women show up at his door. He apparently owes one of them money, so he gives her all the cash in his wallet. Once they’re gone, it’s time to go to his own house — but now he has to walk.
This is one of de Lint’s Newford novels.
It’s about people who used to have a serious addiction, what it’s like to live on the street, and what you can do when you have friends you will help you out.
De Lint’s glorious prose and knowledge of human nature will almost convince you that there’s magic in the world.
This is the 3rd book I’ve read by de Lint. I previously read the brilliant Someplace to Be Flying and Memory and Dream.