LOVE IN THE DAYS OF RAGE

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 15, 1988

Beatnik poet and all-around hipster Ferlinghetti mixes romance and revolution in this slim and breathless narrative of Paris in 1968, when ""life was still a real dream."" But under the cultural radicalism and political idealism lies the most mundane of love stories--a bland affair between a ""successful banker"" and an American expatriate. Annie, an artist from New York, the daughter of working-class radicals from Yonkers, is teaching at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts when she meets Julian Mendes, a self-proclaimed anarchist, who grew up a member of the ""impoverished nobility"" in Portugal, a country ruled by the creel dictator Salazar. Despite ""their so different lives, their so different ways,"" Annie and Julian live out the cliches of April in Paris. Strolling for hours through streets--with ""a tension and excitement in the air""--this mismatched couple debate art and politics, though most of the time Julian dominates discussion with his long-winded lectures on oppression as imposed by religion and the state. Annie, whose head is full of thoughts such as ""the artist is a perpetual enemy of the state,"" is the perfect fellow-traveller, drunk with the excesses of the 60's, all of which are uncritically catalogued by Ferlinghetti's omniscient narrator (""This whole new view"" was ""a kind of 'youthquake' against everything artificial and unnatural in modern life""). Suspicious of Julian's mysterious activities, Annie thinks he's merely amusing her ""with all sorts of wonderful political bullshit"" while she fancies herself a contemporary Charlotte Corday. During the heady days of May, with barricades in the streets, Julian finally enlists Annie in his secret bomb plot--a test that's just as phony in its heroism as Lillian Hellman's in Julia. Muddied with a thick, painterly goo of prose, this artist's vision bogs down in Ginsberglike rantings about ""Poetry Revolution"" as well. The worst aspects of Ferlinghetti's chatty verse dominate here--trite ideas and sentimental notions trivialize everything in his purview.

Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION