Autographed copies of Jeffrey's books are now available through this website. A Reader's Guide to
A Cage of Bones
Proust & Company
Saturday June 6, 2009 8-10PM
Glad Day Bookshop /
598A Yonge St
Readings by three terrific writers, Storm Grant, John Miller and
Jeffrey Round, musical performances by Omel Masalunga and Guests.
"Lit City" at Steam Whistle Brewing:
Saturday May 23, 2PM
The Roundhouse, 255 Bremner Blvd.,
Toronto (just south of the CN Tower)
Jeffrey will be reading at 2 PM on Saturday, May 23, as part of this salute to literary Toronto.
Saints & Sinners:
Thurs May 14 through Sun May 17
New Orleans, Louisiana
Jeffrey will be reading from Death in Key West at this years S&S
Festival.
Don Juan and Men:
Jeffrey is featured in this June
release of works by various authors, edited by Caro Soles
MLRBooks
Forthcoming books:
The Honey Locust (Fall 2009)
Cormorant Books
May 2009
Find April's Intro Here
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"Ah! The glamour, the fame and the glories. Keep them, please and
just send me some money." |
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Aug 30, 2010
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Seems to be Proust month for me. Check this book out if you're a fan: Proust at the Majestic by Richard Davenport-Hines (Bloomsbury 2006) In May 1922, just weeks after putting “Fin” to the pages of his great seven-volume work, In Search of Lost Time, Marcel Proust attended a gala event at Paris’s Majestic Hotel, a fête arranged by an American couple, Sydney and Violet Schiff, two of his greatest fans. (Sydney was later to become the first official English translator of Proust’s final volume, Time Regained, following the death of CK Scott Moncrieff in 1930.) The party brought Proust together with James Joyce, Serge Diaghilev, Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky, all among the most renowned and highly regarded members of the Modernist avante garde. While the event may have been just one more example of the Schiffs’ parading Proust’s friendship to the world, the desire to create an epoch-making event was no doubt genuine, if just as self-serving. Sydney Schiff had writerly ambitions and saw Proust as the living embodiment of his artistic dreams. And while both hoped for a longer acquaintanceship, Proust was to die six months to the day following one of the grandest soirées Paris had seen in decades. Still, this book is more than a fond reminiscence of a party, however grand. It’s also a perceptive critical examination of Proust’s work and life, and how each affected the other. Was Proust a homosexual? Rightly or wrongly, that question lies at the heart of his writing. Today, many would say yes. While he clearly had same-sex relationships, however, the answer may not be so simple, as Davenport-Hines explains it, and therein lies the key to at least part of his very complex work. While the theory that In Search Of Lost Time is a homosexual book with the sex and sexuality of many of the characters transposed to suit the mores of the times is an intriguing one, and anyone with a modicum of gaydar can attest to feelings of sexual-psychological falseness with at least some of the characters, nevertheless, Davenport-Hines contends quite convincingly that Proust revelled in sexual ambiguity and the emotional frisson generated by his unresolved and frequently unrequited relationships, beginning with the narrator’s youthful obsession with his mother. If the brain may be said to be the most important sexual organ then Proust’s outright denials of his homosexuality and his protestations of a more ambiguous amitié amoreuse may have validity after all. (And, coincidentally, making this book one of the longest instances of artistic foreplay on record.) This is a refreshing work after many similar works that don’t quite so convincingly plumb the psychological depths of Proust’s intense and difficult makeup, as well as his complex artistry. Not surprisingly, it stands in marked contrast to the critical reception received at the time of the books’ initial publications (including the ones Proust did not live to see), as most of Proust’s contemporaries were inclined either to ignore or dismiss outright the books’ sexual themes—which are decidedly pronounced no matter how you read them—while a handful of critics complained in the name of public decency. The final chapter, dealing with the last months of Proust’s life and the aftermath of his death (the news was greeted with the sort of reaction a rock star might hope to receive today), is surprisingly moving and convincing in its verismo. Proust at the Majestic is one of the most impressive books of Proustiana to come along, whether read in its own right or as a counterpart to the work itself.  |
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Radical Modern: F. Scott Fitzgerald and New York |
Lost Loves
The Love Of The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald
20 Years of Genius on Disc
Maria Callas -- The Complete Studio Recordings 1949-1969
A Rare Treat
Bessie Smiths 1929 Film Version of St. Louis Blues
