Memoirs of Montparnasse

Posted on 01 January 2017 by John Glassco

Memoirs of Montparnasse is a delicious book about being young, restless, reckless, and without cares It is also the best and liveliest of the many chronicles of 1920s Paris and the exploits of the lost generation In 1928, nineteen year old John Glassco escaped Montreal and his overbearing father for the wilder shores of Montparnasse He remained there until his money ran out and his health collapsed, and he enjoyed every minute of his stay Remarkable for their candor and humor, Glassco s memoirs have the daft logic of a wild but utterly absorbing adventure, a tale of desire set free that is only faintly shadowed by sadness at the inevitable passage of time. New Download Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr It was henceforth to be the arena of our love, the scene, in the words of Victor Hugo, of our sublime combats if I had known the toll they took of my strength and health, I might have made them less sublime Here I should like to warn all young men against nymphomaniac women these lovely succubi are still as dangerous as they were thought to be by the medieval clergy, their smiles will lure you to perdition, their loins will fit you for the bone house within half a year Drink to excess, stay It was henceforth to be the arena of our love, the scene, in the words of Victor Hugo, of our sublime combats if I had known the toll they took of my strength and health, I might have made them less sublime Here I should like to warn all young men against nymphomaniac women these lovely succubi are still as dangerous as they were thought to be by the medieval clergy, their smiles will lure you to perdition, their loins will fit you for the bone house within half a year Drink to excess, stay up all night, walk around hungry, write poetry, smoke, take drugs, indulge in all the varieties of youthful despair, but do not squander your vital forces in the arms of a woman John GlasscoAt age 18 John Glassco became fed up with the strictures of higher education so he abandoned his studies and left for Paris with his friend Graeme Taylor His father gives him a generous allowance in th...A great memoir of a misspent youth, and of Paris in that wonderful time between the wars, when the city was the world capital of art and sex and adventure The author fled from Canada to Montmartre in the late 20s and lived a hand to mouth existence, subsisting on bouillon and gin in various lonely tabacs and struggling to write poetry, while he mixes with a crowd of other artists and expatriates including just about everyone that matters.It s not pulled along by a driving plot or anything, but A great memoir of a misspent youth, and of Paris in that wonderful time between the wars, when the city was the world capital of art and sex and adventure The author fled from Canada to Montmartre in the late 20s and lived a hand to mouth existence, subsisting on bouillon and gin in various lonely tabacs and struggling to write poetry, while he mixes with a crowd of other artists and expatriates including just about everyone that matters.It s not pulled along by a driving plot or anything, but if you have any interest in the era or the setting, there will be plenty for you here to enjoy What makes it particularly valuable is its...Glassco went to Paris in 1928 when he was 18 and stayed a few years then TB sent him back to Canada His memoir, first started in the 30s and completed in the 60s, is an intoxicating blend of fact fiction His writing captures the flavor of Paris then and, except for the names, it hasn t changed much over the years Among the people he meets are Hemingway Bricktop Kiki on the cover With changed names there are also Man Ray and Kay Boyle The p...Actually, a very good book Glassco s allegedly lightly though, in truth, probably heavily fictionalized memoirs, written decades after the events, but under the conceit that they are nearly contemporaraneous There are fascinating vignettes and reported conversations often monologues with people like Ford Maddox Ford, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, Breton, Robert Desnos, Man Ray, Emma Goldman, Frank Harris, Peggy Guggenheim, Kiki of course , and many others and...A delightful, veneral disease ridden piece of memoir painting a vibrant picture of Paris in the late 20s, including most of its literary lions Glassco arrives from Canada to the city of Baudelaire, eager to make his future and swept by a joy so strong it verged on nausea Glassco s bitchy opinions of Stein and Hemingway are entertaining, although it s quite probable he never met either of them More useful even are his attempts to participate in Parisian art and sex and society without the tr A delightful, veneral disease ridden piece of memoir painting a vibrant picture of Paris in the late 20s, including most of its literary lions Glassco arrives from Canada to the city of Baudelaire, eager to make his future and swept by a joy so strong it verged on nausea Glassco s bitchy opinions of Stein and Hemingway are entertaining, although it s quite probable he never met either of them More useful even are his attempts to participate in Parisian art and sex and society without the troublesome meddle of gainful employment Most of these escapades end in penury, or at the clap doctor, or with a handf...There was a certain balance precariously kept throughout the book by the fact that the memoirs were interrupted from time to time by Glassco s hospital bed reflections on the impending surgery that ended his days of pleasure in Montparnasse and presented the young man with the very real prospect of his own death If it wasn t for this occasional reminder of the inevitable passing of time and youth, the literary name dropping and sexual braggadocio could become tiresome However, Glassco came acr There was a certain balance precariously kept throughout the book by the fact that the memoirs were interrupted from time to time ...It s pretty hard to warm to the author at the outset of this book due to the many references to his privileged upbringing and the snobbish disdain he displays for anyone who doesn t fit into his artistic literary elite You also have to deal with an amount of self absorption remarkable even for the solipsistic nature of a memoir, relentless namedropping of the writers, artists, movers and shakes of late 1920s Paris and a stunning lack of awareness of wider events in the world, from his family It s pretty hard to warm to the author at the outset of this book due to the many references to his privileged upbringing and the snobbish disdain he displays for anyone who doesn t fit into his artistic literary elite You also have to deal with an amount of self ...One can be forgiven for writing memoirs at the age of twenty one if the period covered was Paris in the 1920s and one was hob nobbing with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Lord Alfred Douglas, Man Ray, the legendary Kiki, and the ubiquitous Peggy Guggenheim John Glassco s Memoirs of Montparnasse is a delightfully delicious romp through a few short years of decadence and debauchery, written in a witty, off hand manner that is refreshingly candid and often quite thought One can be forgiven for writing memoirs at the age of twenty one if the period covered was Paris in the 1920s and one was hob nobbing with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Lord Alfred Douglas, Man Ray, the legendary Kiki, and the ubiquitous Peggy Guggenheim John Glassco s Memoirs of Montparnasse is a delightfully delicious romp through a few short years of decadence and debaucher...There s nothing quite like an unreliable narrator to keep the reader on his toes John Glassco was one of those North Americans he himself was from Montreal who flocked to Paris in the 1920s As Michael Gnarowski of Carlton University in Ottawa wrote It used to be said of one of the painters in Montparnasse that, although he appeared to be well informed about world events, no one had ever caught him reading a newspaper The same obersvation may be made of the people who inhabit Glassco s Memoi There s nothing quite like an unreliable narrator to keep the reader on his toes John Glassco was one of those North Americans he himself was from Montreal who flocked to Paris in the 1920s As Michael Gnarowski of Carlton University in Ottawa wrote It used to be said of one of the painters in Montparnasse that, although he appeared to be well informed about world events, no one had ever caught him reading a newspaper The same obersvation may be made of the people who inhabit Glassco s Memoirs They seem to be cocooned against the outside world, and Glassco s own narrative is almost totally devoid of references to the times If the young generation had come to Paris in search of freedom and pleasure, or some sort of spiritual enlightenment, it was clearly determined not to allow the world, as inhabited by their families, to interfere with their...This is the kind of book I dream of rather formal language, interesting characters reputed to be both real and fictionalized , historic references to literature, clothing, architecture, travel, food, music, sex..I just couldn t ask muchfrom a book John Glassco s writing is hilarious and vivid the antics and audacity which fill the book didn t alienate me, but rather endear me to him, as I was a pompous dreamer idealist in my teens and early twenties and could readily relate I didn t This is the kind of book I dream of rather formal language, interesting characters repu...

English
01 January 2017

John Glassco