[ilds] Enjoying DEUS LOCI NS14

[PETER BALDWIN]

Thanks for this, Ken

I am awaiting my copy in England and pause to thank Paul Lorenz who had to stick extra labels to the copies leaving the US

Peter

Sent from my iPhone

> On 16 Mar 2016, at 23:27, Kennedy Gammage <gammage.kennedy at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> That’s the Lawrence Durrell Journal 2014-2015, edited by Dr. Anna Lillios. I say enjoying because I am reading it more than once. Here are some first impressions:
> 
> FOUND ON THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR: LEFT OUT OF THE BIOGRAPHY by Ian S. MacNiven
> 
> What a great way to start the volume with this reminiscence. There are too many great stories, quotes and observations – you must read it for yourself. But I really appreciated this choice of words: ‘…one has to look to D. H. Lawrence’s travel writing, to Norman Douglas and Patrick Leigh Fermor, to find Durrell’s peers in “foreign residence” writing.’ I agree: _South Wind_ (a novel,) _A Time of Gifts_ (a travel book,) and Durrell’s foreign residence books are literary peers, related in many respects. But Durrell is not to be pigeonholed, and in particular I think Prospero’s Cell is a sport and hybrid, in a category all its own even among its siblings. That’s why Freya Stark’s “gem-like miniature quality” blurb continues to resonate 70 years later.
> 
> “SWEET UNDISCOVERED ENDS”: A MEMOIR OF COLLECTING AND PUBLISHING LAWRENCE DURRELL by Peter Baldwin
> 
> As previously noted on the listserv: ‘Peter Baldwin just made me laugh out loud on page 26: "...with no sign of anything non-alcoholic for the children."’ This is a charming and very funny reminiscence about Baldwin’s dealings with our hero. Please note that MacNiven quoted a similar story from Katie Wheelock that ‘Larry was very nice with the children – he soon got their three-year-old son tipsy on champagne.’ Larry either didn’t have a taste for fruit juice around the house or just preferred the fermented variety!
> 
> GHOSTS AND SHAPE-SHIFTING DOPPELGANGERS: EXPLORING THE UNCANNY IN LAWRENCE DURRELL’S AVIGNON QUINTET by Dianne Vipond
> 
> I really wanted to like this article because I respect Dr. Vipond, but my main reservation is: I feel that many academics have a tough time associating Lawrence Durrell with science-fiction ( words he himself used in Balthazar) and fantasy writing – so instead they resort to code words like “post-modern.” Or “the uncanny.” Listen – when Durrell was talking about some of his characters coming from “other time-fields and other contingent realities” in Quinx – you can describe that as uncanny, but I think it would be fairer to call it SF.
> 
> JUDITH: A NOVEL BY LAWRENCE DURRELL by Richard Pine
> 
> This was fascinating. Hollywood demands multiple rewrites, and Durrell’s endlessly inventive brain could supply them! Some of the plot and character shifts in his drafts are seismic and disconcerting – but always there is a kind of twisted companion story to the Quartet: Justine & Judith in Palestine.
> 
> “IT IS NOT MEANING THAT WE NEED BUT SIGHT”: LAWRENCE DURRELL’S RED LIMBO LINGO AS A POETIC QUEST FOR FREEDOM by Isabelle Privat-Keller
> 
> Wow. This was very interesting. Unfortunately I haven’t read Red Limbo Lingo but I would like to now.
> 
> A TALE OF TWO VILLAGES: LAWRENCE DURRELL, HASSAN FATHY, AND THE STORY OF GOURNA by David
> Roessel and Gerald L. Vincent
> Check out the pictures! A good one of Larry on Cyprus. This is also about Durrell’s friend Austen Harrison. Was Caradoc from the Revolt based on him? They were both architects. Yes, here it is on page 102: “The more one looks, the more one sees links to Harrison in the creation of Caradoc.”
> 
> CURATE’S EGG ON HIS FACE: BEING A REPLY TO MAHMOUD MANZALAOUI’S “CURATE’S EGG: AN ALEXANDRIAN OPINION OF DURRELL’S QUARTET” by Michael Haag
> 
> This was great – a classic scholarly beat-down. Haag takes this poser out – but what took you so long? Manzalaoui published this squalid and slanderous misreading of the AQ in ’62! Haag wrestles him to the ground point by point: it’s an entertaining and beautiful piece of argumentative rhetoric. It’s also pretty funny how many Durrell scholars Haag mentions who were taken in by MM’s egg. 
> 
> THE METAMORPHOSIS OF LONDON IN THE WRITING OF LAWRENCE DURRELL by Paul Lorenz
> 
> Very interesting. Of course when you think about it, London was formative “foreign residence” material for Durrell from the get-go:  ages 11 to 23. Right – welcome to ould blighty mate. Dr. Lorenz delivers a panoramic overview of the very different ways Larry treated the place over time in his poetry and prose.  “…there are many Londons reflected in Durrell’s eyes.”
> 
> ENDGAME: FROM THE CLOSURE OF TEXTS TO THE ENDING OF A LIFETIME’S OUEVRE by Corinne Alexandre-Garner
> 
> How did all the books end, and what did he intend to convey in those endings? It’s a fascinating question, which leads to a discussion of his last book: Caesar’s Vast Ghost, “…the published copy of which Durrell received by mail the day before his death in November 1990.” That was a true valedictory – though I’m sure he would have liked it more if it came with a check. 
> 
> #
> 
> I’m recusing myself from reviewing the POETRY because I’m still sulking - but I thought was all very fine. 
> 
> Under Notes & Queries there is another essay, and it’s a corker:
> 
> LAWRENCE DURRELL AND THE INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT IN CYPRUS by Jonathan Stubbs
> 
> Anyone who likes BITTER LEMONS (and who doesn’t – but dammit can’t you all see that Bitter Lemons is a foreign residence book, not a “travel book”?) - *ahem* sorry. You really need to read this essay! Fascinating recently-declassified materials from the official Pudding Island Archives about what Durrell was up to in 1954, running the Cyprus Broadcasting Service (CBS.) Gets down to the nitty-gritty level of imperialist propaganda to bring a colonial outpost back into line at a critical time. Maybe the highlight of the volume considering the factual documentation.
> 
> #
> 
> I would like to generally caution the editor of the REVIEWS section to more studiously avoid what I call “log rolling.” Authors included in this very volume review or are reviewed in a somewhat incestuous muddle. That being said – there are gems as usual. Michael Haag reviews Dr. Kaczvinsky’s Durrell and the City: Collected Essays on Place, which flowed from the enjoyable OMG I attended in New Orleans in 2010, and he is nonplussed by the negativity of Alan Friedman’s reappraisal of the AQ:  50 Years Later. This was in fact the keynote of the conference, and it was a blast of cold water in the face! Definitely woke me up at the time – Dr. Friedman is a great speaker. You will find my own paper from the conference, “The Characters in Durrell’s Avignon Quintet   Real or imaginary - or both?” in A CAFÉ IN SPACE The Anais Nin Literary Journal Vol. 9 from 2012.
> 
> The volume closes out with Grove Koger’s  valuable DURRELL BIBLIOGRAPHY 1999 – 2002. An excellent resource which is gradually being brought up to date.  
> 
> OK – that’s it. The ILDS owes a huge debt of gratitude to Dr. Lillios for all her hard work in bringing out another key milestone in Durrell studies. As usual – I am hungry for NS15!
> 
> Best regards - Ken
> 
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