Johnny Crackle Sings

by Matt Cohen

108 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1971

About the author

Matt Cohen studied political economy at the University of Toronto, and taught political philosophy and religion at McMaster University in the late 1960s before publishing his first novel, Korsoniloff, in 1969.

His greatest popular success as a writer was his final novel, Elizabeth and After, which won the 1999 Governor General's Award for English-language Fiction only a few weeks before his death. He had been nominated twice previously, but had not won, in 1979 for The Sweet Second Summer of Kitty Malone and in 1997 for Last Seen.

A founding member of the Writers' Union of Canada, he served on the executive board for many years and as president in 1986. During his presidency the Writer's Union was finally able to persuade the government of Canada to form a commission and establish a Public Lending Right program. He also served on the Toronto Arts Council as chair of the Literary Division and was able to obtain increased funding for writers. In recognition of this work he was awarded a Toronto Arts Award and the Harbourfront Prize.

Cohen died after a battle with lung cancer. A Canadian literary award, the Matt Cohen Prize - In Celebration of a Writing Life, is presented in Cohen's memory by the Writer's Trust of Canada.

He also published a number of children's books under the pseudonym Teddy Jam. Cohen's authorship of the Teddy Jam books was not revealed until after his death. The Fishing Summer was also nominated for a Governor General's Award for children's literature in 1997, making Cohen one of the few writers ever to be nominated for Governor General's Awards in two different categories in the same year.

A film adaptation of his 1990 novel Emotional Arithmetic has been produced by Triptych films starring Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Gabriel Byrne and Susan Sarandon. It was the closing Gala at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get the stream of consciousness 70s vibe thang. But man it was a tough albeit QUICK read. Chosen TBH to get me to the challenge finish line. I'll have to add another Matt Cohen to my reading list just so I can make a more assessment!

[1.1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in this novel contains some fine turn of the mode psychedelic stream-of-consciousness style stuff, the story follows a young man from the Ottawa Valley who becomes a rock and roll star, his squeeze, his agent, his friends, and several others. Initially bewildering, the book quickly fell into its narrative and its patterns and read very well. Calling the writing psychedelic is somewhat generous, as it is not often very distorted and confusing in any overpowering or unexpected way, but I am certain it was what Cohen was aiming for – the story more or less explicitly alludes to psychedelia.

There's really not much of a grand scheme to the book as I saw it. It concerns an up-and-coming young rock star, you can figure out the rest, but it's really not so exhibitionist and hedonistic as you'd think. Mostly it's subdued and personal and muddled and pretty enjoyable. It's short enough that it won't take long to read, which could be a bonus.