Uncommon Ground: A Celebration of Matt Cohen - Couverture souple

Gibson, Graeme

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0676974864 ISBN 13 : 9780676974867

Editeur : Vintage Canada, 2003

Synopsis

In which a stellar group of writers from Canada and beyond discuss the impact of Matt Cohen’s legacy -- with respect and affection, and always in the spirit of the festschrift.

The more-than-thirty contributions to this volume range from accounts of significant moments spent with Matt Cohen to thoughtful commentary on his writing, and include pieces by Margaret Atwood, George Bowering, Stan Dragland, Greg Hollingshead, John Irving, Janet Lunn, Don McKay, Alice Munro, and Monique Proulx.

Matt Cohen’s thoughtful reserve combined with charm and a dazzling, absurdist sense of humour made him a rather paradoxical personality. That he felt both sun and shade in his career as a writer was apparent. He told Monique Proulx that “When a novel starts to come into my mind, it’s like music...and my purpose in entering into writing it -- which will be years, it’s always years -- is to hear it more perfectly.” Yet he also told her how he sees his place in Canadian literature: “There’s a room in which people are handing each other out the parts they could play, but I’m not even in the room.”

While he often felt he stood outside Canadian literary fashion, Cohen spent his life creating works of a classic but deeply personal quality -- from the depth of feeling in the Salem novels through the multi-century Jewish triptych that followed, to the high achievement of his last two novels, Last Seen and Elizabeth and After, and his candid, posthumous memoir, Typing: A Life in Twenty-Six Keys. He also made an extraordinary contribution to children’s literature under the closely guarded pseudonym Teddy Jam. And as a translator he was a powerful force bringing the French and English writers of Canada into a better understanding of their common ground.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Graeme Gibson’s latest novel is Gentleman Death. Wayne Grady is the author most recently of The Bone Museum: Travels in the Lost Worlds of Dinosaurs and Birds. Dennis Lee is the poet laureate of Toronto; his latest book is The Cat and the Wizard. Priscila Uppal is a poet and the author of The Divine Economy of Salvation, a novel. Wayne Grady lives near Kingston, Ontario. The other three live in Toronto.

Extrait. © Reproduit sur autorisation. Tous droits réservés.

Preface

Matt Cohen’s death in December 1999 marked the end of a literary career that spanned three decades, and was an integral part of the so-called renaissance of English-Canadian writing which began in the late 1960s. His first novel, Korsoniloff, appeared in 1969 as part of Anansi’s “Spiderline” series; two years later McClelland & Stewart published Johnny Crackle Sings. Then in 1972, Too Bad Galahad was published by Coach House Press, and Columbus and the Fat Lady by Anansi. In other words, within three years Matt had established himself at Canada’s major publishing house, as well as with two of its most vibrant and influential small literary presses.

It’s worth noting that Matt was one of a very few writers who managed to bridge the sometimes jagged gap between the rival establishments at Anansi and Coach House. He was a truly independent spirit from the outset. This juggling of publishing houses, his refusal to settle, was something he continued throughout his career: a rough count of his books shows at least ten publishers in Canada alone.

Nor is his body of work any less varied. Cohen was one of the most prolific writers of his generation, and his writing covers almost every genre except the theatre. As the essays in this volume attest, he wrote short stories, novels, poetry and kids’ books, reviews and magazine journalism. He also edited anthologies, translated writers from Quebec and ghosted memoirs for passing celebrities. It is melancholy to speculate on what he might have gone on to write, but we’ve included a tantalizing clue in the excerpt from an unfinished novel about the German writer Joseph Roth, which he’d been thinking about and tinkering with for years. There is every indication that it would have been one of his strongest books.

We initially planned this volume while Matt was alive as a celebration of the man we knew (or thought we knew) and of his writing life. At the same time, we wanted to include some longer, more analytic pieces. Although Matt was a thoroughly professional writer who published more than forty books, serious critical attention to his work is in lamentably short supply. Obviously it is the culture as a whole that suffers from the absence of such criticism and evaluation. We’re happy to partially rectify the situation in Matt’s case. And in the process, we hope to encourage others to do the same for significant writers before they’re dead.

When we first called for submissions, the response was immediate and enthusiastic. We suggested three categories: critical essays on some aspect of Cohen’s writing; less formal encounters with his work by other writers, responding as fellow practitioners; and vignettes and memoirs that evoke some aspect of his life. The response was even richer and more varied than we had anticipated; we welcomed the diversity of approach and length, and trust that readers will too. At the same time, with that blessing came regret that we could not include everything we would have liked to.

Constrained as we were by space, our first and easiest decision was to select only original pieces. So little has been published about Matt and his work that we saw no need to reprint what already exists. We made an exception in the case of the interviews, because they convey such a sense of Matt’s quicksilver irony, his restless humour and often peculiar visionary angles. Which is to say, they carry an echo of his voice. Or perhaps his voices, for Matt Cohen was not an easy man, or an easy writer, to pin down.

One of the intriguing things about this collection is the feeling that many contributors have, even those who were close friends, that perhaps they didn’t know Matt as well as they’d thought. The fierce and largely unexpected voice that informs Typing, the remarkable memoir Matt wrote during the last few months of his life, contributes to that. But there’s more to it. None of us is simple, and it appears that Matt Cohen was less simple than most. Many aspects of his life and work that emerge in these essays will strike even those who knew both as fresh and vividly insightful, often in unexpected ways. Those of us who knew him in Canada will have surprising encounters with him in France and England and Italy. Those who thought they understood the Salem quintet or the Jewish diaspora novels will find here new and penetrating material upon which to form a more comprehensive appreciation of Matt’s breadth and depth as a writer.

So we hope this collection will serve as a persuasive introduction to a writer whose career warrants a good deal more study and informed criticism. And to those who already know Matt’s work, we hope it will provide a spur for rereading and further appreciation. Among many subjects on which these pieces invite further thought, two come to mind. The first is Matt’s imaginative relationship, both as a Jew and as a Canadian, with Europe, especially with Paris. A second, probably related subject is his singularly complex relationship with the political philosopher George Grant, the man and his ideas. Matt explored this relationship to some extent in Typing, but left much unsaid.

We mourn the loss of a fine writer, and a mercurial and dynamic friend. We wrote above that December 1999 marked the end of his literary career, but of course that isn’t true. His collection of short stories, Getting Lucky, appeared after his death, as did his memoir, Typing; and the unfinished Roth novel exists to elicit intrigue and speculation. More than that, the works he published during his lifetime will continue to be read and discussed and taught and loved. We hope this collection of thoughts and tributes will enrich that process.

G.G., W.G.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Vintage Canada
• Date d'édition: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0676974864
• ISBN 13: 9780676974867
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 328
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible