Friday, December 24, 2010

A little known work of literature



At the Blue Bookcase the question of the week is:

 What literary title (fiction or non-fiction) do you love that has been under-appreciated?  We all know about the latest Dan Brown, and James Patterson isn't hurting for publicity.  What quiet masterpiece do you want more readers to know?

The most under-appreciated literary title I know of is  Princess, by Joe Richards.This is a memoir by an artist, who quit his job on Madison Avenue, where he designed newspaper advertising, in order to sail a friendship sloop, restored by his own hands, away from New York, to find an island where he could live happily ever after. By the end of the book he is married with children and living in Florida, still sailing and still fixing his boat. This, to me, is a metaphor for modern life. How many of us have run away from our mundane lives to live a fantasy and found our fantasy to be, perhaps more interesting, but still a mundane, existence.

You can read more about Joe and see some of his art at the website his daughter has set up. She has reissued the book as well.



Literary Blog Hop

9 comments:

  1. Ah, one of my favorites. Another story of a voyage, not quite as long or literary but closer to home is Robert de Gast's "Western Wind Eastern Shore: a sailing cruise around the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Delaware and Virginia" It's out of print but the local library has it.

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  2. Merry Christmas and happy new year, Mary Lou and Fred. I'll have to go find "Western Wind Eastern Shore" down at the library.

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  3. Brand new title to me. Thank you!

    http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/12/quiet-masterpieces.html

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  4. Sounds very interesting...thanks for the unique pick.

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  5. I've never heard of it before, but it sounds very interesting. In today's material-driven world, Joe seems very inspiring. :)

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  6. Adding this to my TBR pile! Thanks!

    Merry Christmas to you and your family. Have a wonderful time with them!

    Here is my Literary Blog Hop post!

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  7. Anything by Jonathan Carroll is often underappreciated. I absolutely loved The Ghost In Love. Jonathan Carroll is one of Neil Gaiman's favorite authors.

    For a purely literary title, there is Hopeful Monsters by Nicholas Mosley which is a truly fantastic book.

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  8. This sounds like a great book--and I'm sure I never would have heard of it otherwise. Thanks for this post.

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  9. Storyline sounds great...thanks.

    I am new to this blog hop...glad I found it. Nice to meet you.

    Elizabeth
    http://silversolara.blogspot.com

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