Sam Savage’s Firmin: International Round

Here’s the lovely treat of a 67 year old man, publishing his first book, which goes on to be an international bestseller. Lit-blog Co-op members might remember Sam Savage’s “Firmin,” which is now doing remarkable business abroad:

Firmin … about the adventures of an erratic, paper-gobbling, self-pitying rodent, has spent the summer knocking Ken Follett and Stephen King from bestseller spots in Spain and Italy.

I didn’t have a problem suspending my belief to read about a rat rather than a person (Orwell’s “Animal Farm” trained me, I suppose), and it turns out many other people have enjoyed the book-chewing rodent who wants to be human.

Savage’s observations canadian pharmacy cheap meds about taking so long to write this book are also wickedly insightful. He talks about all the failure of his youth:

But also, Firmin’s essential experience is of failure – failure to write, failure to complete – and I’d had that experience. You can’t have that at 30, because you think it’s going to happen: you have to reach a certain age before you realise that it isn’t.

He goes on to talk about Buddhism and dying to his writerly ambitions before finally being reborn. Depressing or encouraging, depending on your stage in the writerly journey.