The Man Who Worships Gods Of Cardboard

Q: How do you describe what Cardboard Gods is about?A: It is a tough one, and I guess I have different answers at different times. I always have trouble saying what any books are about, actually, I think because it's more about how I lean on them than what they're about. Like On the Road was a book I leaned on when I was 17 and freshly expelled from high school to expand my narrowing horizons and to get some breath in my lungs and to be hopeful about the life I still had to lead, and that such a life might contain some adventures and joy, and that I might be able to write about that life and get some of the joy down onto the page, as Kerouac had. It's the same with this book that I wrote--it's easier for me to comment on how I leaned on it in my life than to say what it's about. Pretty deep into my life here on the planet, I was able to lean on my childhood baseball cards to not only impose some kind of a narrative shape on my previously unshapeable life but also to draw some kind of a feeling of persisting childlike joy from the cards and thread it through my life. Also, I wanted to hold on to that brief span of years that was my childhood, and the cards helped me do that. So I guess maybe that's a long-winded way of saying the book is about a guy holding on to his baseball cards throughout his life.
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The man who worships gods of cardboard - Native Intelligence
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