After the Orange Glow

Identifier

etd-0402102-154912

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

English

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

After the Orange Glow is an autobiographical novel about an American kid who finds himself in Paris France, where he becomes the Writer in Residence at the infamous bookstore Shakespeare and Company, which evolved from Sylvia Beach's historical publishing house into a flophouse for drifters, drug addicts, wanna-be-writers and underworld thieves. The eccentric George Whitman is the ancient alchemist who runs the joint, cooking up a meatloaf of mindgames and sexual tensions. It's 1993, AIDS is running wild, and so is Lily, a flipped-out stimulus-junkie who our hero soon becomes obsessed with in a maelstrom of wealthy benefactors, wacked-out weirdos, and rabid poets ranting in the streets, having tricked themselves into believing they can change the world by resurrecting Poetry -- an ideal, which, along with the overload of drugs and redwine in the story, drives delusional characters mad, to the point where the adventure becomes lethally absurd. There are angry young men, dirty old men, politicians, rock musicians, evil ghouls, missing people, nymphos and Pansexuals, even violence -- all culminating in an epic journey into Abyssinia and its aftermath, in an age of indifference, where romantically inclined minds must figure out ways to function in a world which has no place for prolonged adolescence. The first of three novels based on a Bohemia nobody knows is right beneath our collective nose.

Date

2002

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Secure the entire work for patent and/or proprietary purposes for a period of one year. Student has submitted appropriate documentation which states: During this period the copyright owner also agrees not to exercise her/his ownership rights, including public use in works, without prior authorization from LSU. At the end of the one year period, either we or LSU may request an automatic extension for one additional year. At the end of the one year secure period (or its extension, if such is requested), the work will be released for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Andrei Codrescu

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.1053

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