Glass Eater

Posted on by shipwrecktbooks

Dan Coffey

Playwright, director and actor, Dan Coffey known for his work with Duck’s Breath Mystery Theater and portraying memorable characters like Dr. Science. Dan lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

 

Glass Eater is a wild, satiric hybrid, a book Hunter S. Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut might have collaborated on—set design by Graham Greene and Paul Theroux, special effects by Malcom Lowry.

Move over, Kurt Vonnegut! Dan Coffey’s wicked humor strikes again! The Glass Eater is about a burned-out con man knocking around the third world with some CIA types on his tail. Reduced to betting he can eat ashtrays for a living, our heart goes out to him when his Russian wife runs off with Dick Cheney. We discover Dick Nixon still lives—sort of—in a lab north of San Diego. Of course he’s still in touch with Henry Kissinger. And of course Condi Rice and Hillary have become pals in Coffey-world. In the end the Glass Eater uses his talents to save the world—maybe. Or will the world be saved by a man who builds glass towers? And whose side is Jesus on, anyway? You’ll find out reading The Glass Eater—sort of. —Terence A. Harkin, author of The Big Buddha Bicycle Race

Rumor has it that Dick Cheney has read the book and said:  Don’t buy this book.  And if you do, don’t read it!

Rejoyce says: The preeminent strength of Dan Coffey’s Glass Eater is voice. The main narrative is told in the baffled, idiomatic voice of the eponymous character who stumbles through Candide-like adventures, while plying his sideshow act to foot the bills. He is one of the MFA boat people, an economic refugee living outside the belly of the beast. Coffey, a graduate of the esteemed Iowa Writers Workshop, has a firm command of voice and much of this too-short, picaresque book is hilarious. Interspersed with the main story are secret memos by a cryogenically frozen Nixon, Bush Jr. and, you guessed it, The Donald. These are merely polemical. I wish the author had explored the deeper implications of the title, how it eats at the gut, how the price of the ticket may be too high. A short, fast, entertaining read, but might have been a minor classic.
Michael Morical: A Joyful Ride through Expat-dom. This book paints a hilarious portrait of a low-to-no-budget expat who eats glass for a living. Along the way, Coffey ties in bits by Richard Nixon (in an introduction written by Tricky Dick after his alleged death), Donald Trump, Henry Kissinger and other high-flying government flunkies. As funny as it is, Coffey makes serious points, so serious that Dick Cheney warns, in a blurb for the novel, “Don’t buy this book. If you do, don’t read it!” The author looks at expats who are scraping the bottom of the barrel, attracting as much attention to themselves as they can. The characters are rich. Through it all, Coffey maintains a uniquely entertaining perspective of life and politics. This is a joy to read and leaves me wanting more, a quality that I appreciate in a novel of any length. It is the perfect tonic for the times in which we live–laughter in the new dark age. Besides, you can learn how to eat glass, a valuable skill for digital nomads, expats or anyone who seeks to learn a trade in the world of brick and mortar.
From B.Leary: Move over, Kurt Vonnegut! Dan Coffey’s wicked humor strikes again! The Glass Eater is about a burned-out con man knocking around the third world with some CIA types on his tail. Reduced to betting he can eat ashtrays for a living, our heart goes out to him when his Russian wife runs off with Dick Cheney. We find out Nixon still lives—sort of—in a lab north of San Diego. Of course he’s still in touch with Henry Kissinger. And of course Condi Rice and Hillary have become pals in Coffey-world. In the end the Glass Eater uses his talents to save the world—maybe. Or will the world be saved by a man who builds glass towers? And whose side is Jesus on, anyway? You’ll find out reading The Glass Eater—sort of.