Rich Flanders's Blog, page 3
May 3, 2022
''The Paris Bookseller''
Reading ‘’The Paris Bookseller’’ is to be transported into the crackling arrtisitc ferment of the Left Bank in the 20’s and 30’s. Kerri Maher’s enthralling true-life novel of Sylvia Beach, her creation of the iconic bookstore, and her almost single-handed championng of James Joyce’s revolutionary novel, ‘’Ulysses.’’ gifts us with the tastes, smells and vistas of the Latin Quarter. The beguiling, day to day life of bohemian Paris - the ‘’moveable feast’’ some of us have been fortunate enough to have experienced - is vividly re-created.
For me, reading this book was like conversing with a dear friend. From l965 through l967, ‘’Shakespeare & Company’’ bookstore was home away from home when I was stationed in Paris during a hitch in the Army. It was an oasis, a haven for seekers and aspiring artists, and I hurried there as often as I could. Just as Sylvia Beach, the founder of the bookstore, had welcomed and nurtured expatriate writers like Hemingway during the 20’s and 30’s, the current proprietor, George Whitman, never failed to be gracious and kind to young misfits like myself who would wander in of an evening, keenly scan the walls of books, and flop into a corner armchair with a promising novel. I still have the paperbacks of ‘’The Razor’s Edge’’ and ‘’A Moveable Feast’’ that I purchased at ''Shakespeare & Company.'' And with so many avid readers and aspiring writers milling about, the shop percolated with creative energy, propelling me to complete a lengthy poem. The poem later found publication in Poet Lore magazine, and the bookstore itself found hallowed pages of its own in my book, ''Under the Great Elm.''
Even if you haven’t been to Paris and frequented ‘’Shakespeare & Company,'’ you can settle happily into a corner armchair there and observe, amidst the likes of Gertrude Stein, the Fitzgeralds, Andre Gide, T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, Ernest and Hadley Hemingway and James Joyce. the brilliant, intrepid young American, Sylvia Beach, create a literary institution while guiding James Joyce’s pivotal novel, ‘’Ulysses,'' to universal triumph.
Too bad I can only give ‘’The Paris Bookseller’' 5 stars.
For me, reading this book was like conversing with a dear friend. From l965 through l967, ‘’Shakespeare & Company’’ bookstore was home away from home when I was stationed in Paris during a hitch in the Army. It was an oasis, a haven for seekers and aspiring artists, and I hurried there as often as I could. Just as Sylvia Beach, the founder of the bookstore, had welcomed and nurtured expatriate writers like Hemingway during the 20’s and 30’s, the current proprietor, George Whitman, never failed to be gracious and kind to young misfits like myself who would wander in of an evening, keenly scan the walls of books, and flop into a corner armchair with a promising novel. I still have the paperbacks of ‘’The Razor’s Edge’’ and ‘’A Moveable Feast’’ that I purchased at ''Shakespeare & Company.'' And with so many avid readers and aspiring writers milling about, the shop percolated with creative energy, propelling me to complete a lengthy poem. The poem later found publication in Poet Lore magazine, and the bookstore itself found hallowed pages of its own in my book, ''Under the Great Elm.''
Even if you haven’t been to Paris and frequented ‘’Shakespeare & Company,'’ you can settle happily into a corner armchair there and observe, amidst the likes of Gertrude Stein, the Fitzgeralds, Andre Gide, T.S. Elliot, Ezra Pound, Ernest and Hadley Hemingway and James Joyce. the brilliant, intrepid young American, Sylvia Beach, create a literary institution while guiding James Joyce’s pivotal novel, ‘’Ulysses,'' to universal triumph.
Too bad I can only give ‘’The Paris Bookseller’' 5 stars.
April 15, 2022
HOW DID THE ''GIVEAWAY'' GO?
My deepest appreciation to the nearly SIX THOUSAND people - 5, 911 to be exact - who entered our Giveaway for just TEN signed, softcover copies of "UNDER THE GREAT ELM''! I was stunned and humbled by the keen interest in the book, a sign that a story of hope and inspiration is striking a chord at this moment on the planet.
I wish I could have accommodated the remaining 5, 901 participants with a free copy, but the good news is ''UNDER THE GREAT ELM - A Life of Luck & Wonder'' is now available for PRE-ORDER on Amazon, B&N, major retailers and bookstores (release date April 28) and IMMEDIATELY available as an eBook!
My thanks, and happy reading! Rich
I wish I could have accommodated the remaining 5, 901 participants with a free copy, but the good news is ''UNDER THE GREAT ELM - A Life of Luck & Wonder'' is now available for PRE-ORDER on Amazon, B&N, major retailers and bookstores (release date April 28) and IMMEDIATELY available as an eBook!
My thanks, and happy reading! Rich
April 3, 2022
LAUNCHED!
Friends, this is an exciting moment for me. I'm happy to announce that my book is NOW AVAILABLE!
“UNDER THE GREAT ELM - A Life of Luck and Wonder”
- FINALIST, AMERICAN WRITING AWARDS, 2021
- FIVE STARS, READERS’ FAVORITES
“A story of hope and inspiration for our time''
- HARDCOVER & PAPERBACK available for PRE-ORDER on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other retailers, and local bookshops
- eBOOK available IMMEDIATELY on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other digital platforms
amazon.com/author/richflanders
''Sweeping from the Illinois countryside to the plains and mountains of the American West, from the cafes of Paris to the Gaza Strip, and from the tropics of India to the rhythms of Broadway, this is a story of hope and inspiration for our time.
Swift, lyrical, often astonishing, it is a tale of high adventure, of love lost and found, a lifelong journey of enlightenment, and remarkable interspecies encounters. Laced with a sense of wonder and humor, this is a compelling and unique masterpiece of nonfiction that all readers will enjoy.’’ - Goodreads ''Giveaways'' promotion page.
It's also not too late to enter the GIVEAWAY for a signed, first-edition softcover copy - Giveaway ends midnight, April 9th.
Let me add...thanks for all your support and interest. It means a great deal to me to share this story, and my hope is that it will be an uplifting one for people at this time on the planet.
“UNDER THE GREAT ELM - A Life of Luck and Wonder”
- FINALIST, AMERICAN WRITING AWARDS, 2021
- FIVE STARS, READERS’ FAVORITES
“A story of hope and inspiration for our time''
- HARDCOVER & PAPERBACK available for PRE-ORDER on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other retailers, and local bookshops
- eBOOK available IMMEDIATELY on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other digital platforms
amazon.com/author/richflanders
''Sweeping from the Illinois countryside to the plains and mountains of the American West, from the cafes of Paris to the Gaza Strip, and from the tropics of India to the rhythms of Broadway, this is a story of hope and inspiration for our time.
Swift, lyrical, often astonishing, it is a tale of high adventure, of love lost and found, a lifelong journey of enlightenment, and remarkable interspecies encounters. Laced with a sense of wonder and humor, this is a compelling and unique masterpiece of nonfiction that all readers will enjoy.’’ - Goodreads ''Giveaways'' promotion page.
It's also not too late to enter the GIVEAWAY for a signed, first-edition softcover copy - Giveaway ends midnight, April 9th.
Let me add...thanks for all your support and interest. It means a great deal to me to share this story, and my hope is that it will be an uplifting one for people at this time on the planet.
March 1, 2022
Ask not for whom the bell tolls...
Shoulder to shoulder they stand, grandmothers, daughters, teenage boys, clerks, professors, mechanics, clergymen and students cradling shotguns, hunting rifles, and molotov cocktails, against the obscene might of the Russian army. From our TV sets and iphones we watch dumbstruck as citizens huddle in parking garages, subway stations and basements and sing the Ukrainian national anthem in the midst of pitiless bombardment.
It is sobering to note that the world’s next great novels are being lived right now on the streets of the cities of Ukraine, masterpieces that will capture the mythic scope of the battle of light versus darkness, inspiring generations. But right now our TV screens cannot distance us from the experience. What we are witnessing is immediate, impossible to separate from. In anguish our whole being screams out to us, ‘’DO SOMETHING!’'
We each know what we would do if we were there. Some of us would take up the rifle, some would care for the injured, some would help others escape. And in every moment we would expect our fellow humans to rise up around the world to end this atrocity.
Good versus evil has never been more starkly displayed before the world. David is meeting Goliath, right is meeting wrong, in plain sight for all to see. Will the nations gather to defy the blustering thermonuclear threats of a psychopathic tyrant and end this, or will thousands more perish, along with the promise of freedom and democracy?
In the shadow of this titanic battle, something new is struggling to be born. A new way of being, an evolutionary step. Paul Hawken coined it ‘’blessed unrest.’’ You can hear it percolating across the world, in the young and down the generations.
Just ahead there is a corner waiting to be turned. Will we turn it? Will our earth glimpse the coming of the first humans at last?
It is sobering to note that the world’s next great novels are being lived right now on the streets of the cities of Ukraine, masterpieces that will capture the mythic scope of the battle of light versus darkness, inspiring generations. But right now our TV screens cannot distance us from the experience. What we are witnessing is immediate, impossible to separate from. In anguish our whole being screams out to us, ‘’DO SOMETHING!’'
We each know what we would do if we were there. Some of us would take up the rifle, some would care for the injured, some would help others escape. And in every moment we would expect our fellow humans to rise up around the world to end this atrocity.
Good versus evil has never been more starkly displayed before the world. David is meeting Goliath, right is meeting wrong, in plain sight for all to see. Will the nations gather to defy the blustering thermonuclear threats of a psychopathic tyrant and end this, or will thousands more perish, along with the promise of freedom and democracy?
In the shadow of this titanic battle, something new is struggling to be born. A new way of being, an evolutionary step. Paul Hawken coined it ‘’blessed unrest.’’ You can hear it percolating across the world, in the young and down the generations.
Just ahead there is a corner waiting to be turned. Will we turn it? Will our earth glimpse the coming of the first humans at last?
February 23, 2022
''Where did you get the idea for your upcoming book, UNDER THE GREAT ELM – A Life of Luck & Wonder?'
I really didn’t set out to write a book, only to record certain extraordinary experiences that I wanted friends and family to know about. These experiences, some of which stretched my understanding of ‘’reality,’’ needed to be preserved. As well, I sought some sort of through-line for the kaleidoscope of my life.
As I began to write, and remember, remarkable stories rolled out of high adventure, interspecies encounters, and jaw-dropping serendipity, like the lost and found love story that weaves through my life. I began to take note of an incredible luck that had graced my journey, sometimes through the most harrowing moments. I also became aware of an abiding sense of wonder, with me since boyhood in Illinois. Clearly, here was a story worth telling. What would officially be labeled a ‘’memoir’’ was in actuality a spiritual odyssey, an adventure novel.
In a world in need of a lift, I felt it was important to share a different perspective. In shadow and in sun...luck and wonder.
As I began to write, and remember, remarkable stories rolled out of high adventure, interspecies encounters, and jaw-dropping serendipity, like the lost and found love story that weaves through my life. I began to take note of an incredible luck that had graced my journey, sometimes through the most harrowing moments. I also became aware of an abiding sense of wonder, with me since boyhood in Illinois. Clearly, here was a story worth telling. What would officially be labeled a ‘’memoir’’ was in actuality a spiritual odyssey, an adventure novel.
In a world in need of a lift, I felt it was important to share a different perspective. In shadow and in sun...luck and wonder.
February 17, 2022
Shane
‘’You don’t know if he’s a devil or an angel, if he’s real, or not.’’ Those cryptic words from my cousin hooked me good. In the summer of 1954 I was a budding teenager, and as soon as I could, I picked up the 25 cent paperback at the drugstore and read it all the long drive from Illinois to California. Shane’s mythic presence embedded my early adolescence and beyond, and that beautiful fable became one of the seminal books in my life. Tapping into some deep internal reservoir of emotions, the story feels primordial, and is so simply and masterfully written that it has become an indelible part of American literature and culture. I still have that original paperback with its gripping portrait on the cover of a rider in a tattered black suit. When I finally saw the George Stevens film, re-issued almost a decade later at a San Francisco ‘’arts cinema,’’ I was for a moment bothered that the filmmakers hadn’t adhered to the dark images of that cover painting, but the movie’s overwhelming impact quickly neutralized that concern. In fact, the film is the masterpiece of a director with a distinguished list of films that includes ‘’A Place in the Sun,’’ ‘’I Remember Mama’’ and ‘’The Diary of Anne Frank.’’
The poet, Carl Sandburg, perfectly captured the experience of watching ‘’Shane:''
‘’The whole thing seems to be happening at the bottom of a clear deep pool,’’ he remarked.
It’s a case where the movie version of a fine book turns out to be equally fine. Both, deservedly, have become classics.
You can’t pinpoint all the elements that make a classic. There’s an ineffable quality that eludes us, and the author himself, knowing he has entered the realm of legend and myth, sums it up in that last great, breathless, unpunctuated sentence - ‘’He was the man who rode into our little valley out of the heart of the great glowing West and when his work was done rode back whence he had come and he was Shane.’’
(less) [edit]
The poet, Carl Sandburg, perfectly captured the experience of watching ‘’Shane:''
‘’The whole thing seems to be happening at the bottom of a clear deep pool,’’ he remarked.
It’s a case where the movie version of a fine book turns out to be equally fine. Both, deservedly, have become classics.
You can’t pinpoint all the elements that make a classic. There’s an ineffable quality that eludes us, and the author himself, knowing he has entered the realm of legend and myth, sums it up in that last great, breathless, unpunctuated sentence - ‘’He was the man who rode into our little valley out of the heart of the great glowing West and when his work was done rode back whence he had come and he was Shane.’’
(less) [edit]
January 7, 2022
One of the great books of my life
The Roots of Heaven
by Romain Gary
131682370
Rich Flanders's review Jan 06, 2022 · edit
This novel, a truly great literary and entertainment achievement, has stayed with me since I first read it decades ago. It is a paean to Nature. Decades ahead of its time, the book is really a legend, an epic tale of one man who sets out against all odds to defend Nature - more specifically, the great elephants - along the way attracting a ragged band of iconoclastic followers. Permeated throughout with the understanding that how we treat the animals tells us all we need to know about how we treat our planet and each other, this is a thrilling, heart-rending, unforgettable novel, It is as prophetic today as when it was published in the late 1950's. Winner of one of France's top literary prizes, the Prix Goncourt.
by Romain Gary
131682370
Rich Flanders's review Jan 06, 2022 · edit
This novel, a truly great literary and entertainment achievement, has stayed with me since I first read it decades ago. It is a paean to Nature. Decades ahead of its time, the book is really a legend, an epic tale of one man who sets out against all odds to defend Nature - more specifically, the great elephants - along the way attracting a ragged band of iconoclastic followers. Permeated throughout with the understanding that how we treat the animals tells us all we need to know about how we treat our planet and each other, this is a thrilling, heart-rending, unforgettable novel, It is as prophetic today as when it was published in the late 1950's. Winner of one of France's top literary prizes, the Prix Goncourt.
