Taylor, John
Description
Review
". . .The only contemporary writer I can think of who belongs to the same family [as Jacques Réda] is John Taylor, an American who lives in Fr
...
ance whose
Some Sort of Joy has recently come out in a French translation."
--Daniela Hurezanu,
Three Percent
"As we read Taylor's apparently simple prose we see that its surface hides deep secrets, uncommon perplexities. This brilliant book is a kind of pilgrim's 'process', offering no final answer."
--Irving Malin,
Context
From the Inside Flap
For those of us who have amicably followed John Taylor's career, as a writer of sensitive prose about growing up in the Midwest and as an enlightened critic of contemporary French literature, this "French book" has long been awaited - yet it is no less astonishing now that we have it. What sort of odd travelogue or oblique self-investigation is this? As Taylor describes the seemingly nondescript, or recounts what happens when "nothing happens," overlooked urban and suburban minutiae suddenly shine forth in all their modest yet jubilant significance. The scope of "Some Sort of Joy", as the author extols serendipitous discoveries or broods over unsettling omens, extends well beyond any portrayal of "Frenchness". Because this droll (and often drolly obsessive) exploration of the quotidian also chronicles an evolving inner world, "Some Sort of Joy" rather resembles a modern-day "Pilgrim's Progress", though the question of what exact form of transcendence the wandering narrator - assuming he is unique - might be seeking is artfully left open. In any event, this Iowa-born Peripatetic (and occasional Peugeot-driver) is definitely seeking something essential, and because of the joyous haphazardness with which he persists, he is an unusually engaging guide. (Jeremy Alden)
About the Author
Originally from Des Moines, John Taylor has lived in France since 1977. He is the author of five other collections of short prose: "The Presence of Things Past", "Mysteries of the Body and the Mind", "The World As It Is", "The Apocalypse Tapestries", and "If Night is Falling". "Some Sort of Joy" has been translated into French as "Une certaine joie" (trans. Françoise Daviet, Éditions Tarabuste, 2009). As a critic, he writes about contemporary French literature for the Times Literary Supplement in London as well as the "Poetry Today" column in the Antioch Review. He has written numerous essays about French writers and poets ("Paths to Contemporary French Literature", three volumes, 2004, 2007, 2011) and is also active as a translator of French poetry (Philippe Jaccottet, Pierre-Albert Jourdan, Jacques Dupin).
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Some places are more beautiful than others, but we rarely manage to live at or even near them. So I look around wherever I am, open my eyes at whatever I come across, take every street and passageway - this passageway leading to the rue Béclard, for instance.
I find a secluded parking lot overgrown with weeds. The parking spaces have been marked out with a strange kind of concrete rod that I have never seen anywhere else.
The wind is passing gently through the upper branches of a linden.
The afternoon sunlight is shining brightly against the dusty white shingles covering a façade.
I pause for a moment, relatively certain that I am experiencing some sort of joy.
Read more