An Experiment in Non-Smoking (III): Reading Lesley Stern’s ‘The Smoking Book’

David Bowie ("Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth …") makes a stellar appearance in 'The Smoking Book'. In 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence', playing a war prisoner about to become ashes to ashes, Bowie mimes the act of having a last cigarette. In Stern's story, the narrator's cigarette is put on hold (…) and the description of Bowie's enactment (already a ghost of the real act) operates as the substitute of her own smoking...