Blurb
for Shades
of Persephone
Shades of
Persephone is a literary mystery that will entertain those who delight in exotic
settings, foreign intrigue, and the unmasking of mysterious characters. Crete
in 1980-81, more specifically the old Venetian harbour of Chania, provides the
background against which expat Canadian Steven Spire labours in pursuit of
David Montgomery, his enigmatic and elusive mentor, who stands accused in
absentia of treachery and betrayal. The plot has many seams through which
characters slide, another of them being the poet Emma Leigh, widow of
Montgomery’s imposing Cold War adversary, Heinrich Trüger. In that the setting
is Crete, the source of light is manifold, but significant inspiration for
Steven Spire comes from Magalee De Bellefeuille, his vision of Aphrodite and
his muse. “Find Persephone,” she directs him, “and you’ll find David
Montgomery.” Her prompts motivate much
of the narrative, including that of the Cretan underground during the Nazi
occupation, 1941- 45.
Shades
of Persephone presents a story of love and sensuality, deception and war, spiritual
quest and creative endeavour. The resolution takes an unanticipated turn but
comes as no surprise to the discerning reader. Like Hamlet who must deal with
his own character in following the injunctions of his ghostly father, Steven
Spire discovers much about the city to which he has returned, but much more
about himself and his capacity for love.
Blurb
for Lighting The Lamp
Lighting The Lamp dramatizes the efforts of Terry Burke, a sympathetic, at times caustic
and critical, but ordinary old guy, to come to grips with who he is and what
his life has been. His struggle to accept retirement and to interpret the
iterations of the voice in his head spreads to concern over the mysterious
death of a wanderer. Terry’s obsession
to solve the mystery fuses directly with his personal history and leads him in
and out of fascinating, half-remembered mythological landscapes.
A restive
Terry is enjoined to revisit the
haunts of his youth. Family dynamics of the present, mirrored in Irish
heritage of the past, come into play as do contrarian opinions encountered
among cronies, distant friends, and lost loves. Motivated by his muse to tell all, what he seeks in addition to
understanding is truthful voice and the purest possible point of view.
Aware that remembrance of
things past in not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were, this quixotic Everyman eventually reaches beyond
self, beyond mystery, and beyond theodicy to a philosophical embrace of cosmic
apotheosis. In Lighting
The Lamp, Montreal provides
more than a background for potential jihad-sponsored terrorism, or ghosts out
of the past, or a romantic trip down memory lane; the many-layered city takes
on the function of a defined and demanding character and declares in a voice
Terry hears clearly: “Know me and know yourself!”
Blurb
for Séjour
Saint-Louis
Montreal in late nineteenth
century, a gifted young poet falls victim to madness.
Today, a
struggling father is driven to drink over the intransigence of his music-obsessed teenage son. An equally conflicted wife and mother
threatens separation.
What connects these two worlds?
The Victorian fountain in Square Saint-Louis, a
series of seemingly random incidents in the city, and a school reunion where
myth, art, and mysterious e-lixar fuse into dramatic reflections of family
dynamics. Through mirroring, resolution proves possible.
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