My dream literary event took place last Thursday. Nick Cave (the Europe-based musician with the cult following), gave a reading of his new novel at the St. Brigid's Cultural Centre in lowertown. Originally from Australia, he has a musical style that's quite his own, and a literary approach with the lyrics that sometimes tell morbid stories of bent characters, a Euro-Tom Waits sort of.
I first fell for Cave's raucous and pessimistic punk music in the early 1980s when he fronted the Birthday Party. As I grew up and needed more warmth in my music, he grew too, into a genius storytelling balladeer and love song singer through the 90s and early 00s as leader of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Our paths diverged over time as I became too busy with life to follow his new musical work. If you aren't familiar Cave's music, take a look at one of several good video clips.
So it was with great excitement that I heard, the day before the event, that Nick Cave was coming to town. My great brother sent me an alert from Toronto. Cave's novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, is his second (he also wrote a successful screenplay). Suitably morbid, I thought. Probably not something I would read, but I must see him! I must be in the same room, for old time's sake!
I bought a ticket ahead of time to make sure I got in, and arrived at the former church in plenty of time to find a seat. Soon I saw an old friend S. sitting a few rows ahead of me, so I had a pal on hand too. Here's an excerpt, as Cave reads the first selection (caution: sexual content, not suitable for my mother or young readers). The book, it turns out, is about an unfaithful travelling salesman who has a sex addiction and is really an unpleasant chap, and his relationship with his 10-year old son.
Local poet David O'Meara did a fabulous job as host and interviewer of the evening, demonstrating his familiarity with Cave's work and helping the normally awkward and uncomfortable interviewee to relax and let loose some pretty humorous banter eventually. This became a particularly important skill to get through some of the agonizingly sincere fan questions and statements of adoration that came during the audience QandA session.
My favourite Nick Cave line of the evening, in response to a man who said he was trying to raise is son on serious literature: "I like the teletubbies, what's wrong with them?" Here, here!
Oh yes, I did buy the novel, in part so that I would have a suitable autograph opportunity and one-on-one moment with the gangly artist. And yes, he did sign it "love Nick Cave." Awesome!
And yes, I will give the novel a try. It has been reviewed rather well, though I expect it to be darker than I would like, possibly traumatizingly so. Cave spoke so well about his chosen theme that I am tempted to believe him when he says it has an uplifting side. Not too uplifting though - no redemption, but perhaps acknowledegment of the humanity in each of us despite our (or others') sometimes deep-seated faults.
2 comments:
Spelunking by a FirstCityBook Blogger.
The damp dark ground in my head
when I was twenty let the spores
I took into my mouth grow mushrooms
so fat that I opened up a roadside
stand, my sign reading, "fungi
for sale." After each harvest,
I opened up my head for the sun
to warm my soil, the hinge so stiff
I had to use all of my strength.
Earthworms went deeper. My eyes--
the pupils so large I could see
inside a cave, without a torch,
without radar pinging off the walls--
scared the tourists back into
their cars, engines already running.
I scared myself. I was afraid
of them, too. I only wanted
a gardener to come and turn over
my dirt with her spade. My sign,
up close, read, "gardener wanted."
And now when oak, maple, and spruce
trees fill my head, enough space
between them to keep the ground lit,
and when my gardener helps me grow
daffodils and tulips each spring,
peonies in the summer, I look
onto rooms in the afternoon, squares
of light on the floor, the curtains
blown back from the windows, the drone
of an airplane overhead, needing no more.
Thanks FirstCityBook for the nice poem. It does contain the word "cave" I see. It also makes me think of another topic I've been thinking of lately -- gardening in public spaces. Maybe I'll share my thoughts on that topic soon. Take care,
Post a Comment