Product Description
Letters from Paris is an epistolary memoir that chronicles the intellectual and emotional life of an American expatriate in Paris. (410 pages; trade-sized paperback, printed on acid-free paper.)

Critical acclaim for Rob Couteau's novel, Doctor Pluss, and his anthology, Collected Couteau: 'Amazingly beautiful, haunting prose. It's a great book.' - Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, author of E.E. Cummings; The Continual Pilgrimage: American Writers in Paris, 1944-1960; and An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles.

'Intellectual freshness, richness and potency ...' '[An] impressively creative writer, whom [Barney] Rosset urged me to review.' - Jim Feast, author of Neo Phobe, from his Evergreen Review essay on Doctor Pluss and Collected Couteau (December 2009). ... Read more

Product Description
Collected Couteau features an anthology the author's writings and publications. It contains the only complete, unabridged versions of interviews with Ray Bradbury and Last Exit to Brooklyn author Hubert Selby. The 197-page trade-sized paperback also features an unabridged interview with Paul Bowles's biographer, Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, in which the latter discusses Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and the Beats. Also included are two essays on Walt Whitman, an essay on Paul Klee's 'Lost in Thought,' and numerous book reviews, including reviews of Tea in the Harem, by Mehdi Charef; The Demon and The Room, by Hubert Selby; Libra, by Don DeLillo; Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; The Mustache, by Emmanuel Carrère; A Literate Passion: The Letters of Anais Nin and Henry Miller. The book also contains a selection of the author's poems and a review of Allen Ginsberg's 1990 photography show in Paris.

Critical acclaim for Rob Couteau's novel, Doctor Pluss, and his anthology, Collected Couteau: 'Amazingly beautiful, haunting prose. It's a great book.' - Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, author of E.E. Cummings; The Continual Pilgrimage: American Writers in Paris, 1944-1960; and An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles.

'Intellectual freshness, richness and potency ...' '[An] impressively creative writer, whom [Barney] Rosset urged me to review.' - Jim Feast, author of Neo Phobe, from his Evergreen Review essay on Doctor Pluss and Collected Couteau (December 2009). ... Read more

Product Description
'In Couteau's work there is no phoniness, no artifice for the sake of artifice - though in the great French tradition this poet knows so well, there is some art for the sake of art. Couteau does not venture into realms of obscurity where meaning is confined to the interior of a Klein bottle; his poems all have direct force, subjects, even verbs. He is intent on having his readers share in his observations, whether it be his artful retelling and reinterpretations of Native American story and song, or his appraisal of how a woman parades across the avenue. He does not ever sacrifice ordinary sense for an extra-ordinary significance. Instead, he speaks with fervor, with something to say, with something he wants us to hang onto and in the process come to an understanding of why it matters not just to him but should matter to us. [...]

'I think it was William Carlos Williams who said that poetry is belief. Couteau believes in belief, believes that poetic worth is measured in faithfulness to what is, what has been, and what could be. These are his talismans; these are the points where he begins and ends. His poetic excursions take us to many places: to the Paris of Rimbaud and Picasso, to the Native North Americans, to mythology and history and how the woman he is encountering is seducing him as he seduces her (and us), and finally, how alone, the cosmos plays itself out at 3 a.m. when the only lap dog is memory.' - Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno (author of E.E. Cummings; The Continual Pilgrimage: American Writers in Paris; and An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles), from his Introduction to The Sleeping Mermaid.

Critical acclaim for Rob Couteau's novel, Doctor Pluss, and his anthology, Collected Couteau: 'Intellectual freshness, richness and potency ...' '[An] impressively creative writer, whom [Barney] Rosset urged me to review.' - Jim Feast, author of Neo Phobe, from his Evergreen Review essay on Doctor Pluss and Collected Couteau (Dec. 2009). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A book of flowing poetry and thought
Novelist and literary enthusiast Rob Couteau brings readers part of his love with "The Sleeping Mermaid", a book of flowing poetry and thought that asks plenty of questions and offers plenty of answers. "The Sleeping Mermaid" is a poetry collection well worth considering. "...Muse...": She is constant/like a steady stream;/only my cup/may falter.
... Read more

Product Description
Poems from the late twentieth century was published as a chapbook in a limited edition of about fifty copies in the spring of 1978, several months after Couteau's twenty-first birthday. It was produced with the help of Spencer Seidman, who designed the layout and assembled the special covers for the project.

Each cover was unique. While the front-cover image was more or less the same for each edition - a photo of Nikita Khrushchev smiling before the pyramids in Egypt - the insides of the front and back covers featured a dazzling variety of brightly colored photomontage, each a one-of-a-kind. These were created with the use of "waysheets" (discarded pages left over from previous printing projects), which were run through the press a second time, thus superimpos-ing new images upon the previous ones. The chapbook was printed by Seidman at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester.

Shortly after its publication, six copies were purchased by the owner of the Phoenix Bookstore in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. They were bought with funds from the "Phoenix Project," which acquired small-press publications for a number of universities throughout the USA. As a result of this serendipitous sale, poems from the late twentieth century is now part of the Special Collections of the following libraries: New York University, Yale University Library, Colby College, Michigan State University Libraries, Northwestern University, and UCLA Library.

The poems explore a playful, ironic, Pop-Art imagery and are composed in a highly rhythmical style. Although radically different from Couteau's later, mature work, they capture his love of language and willingness to experi-ment. ... Read more

Product Description
Doctor Pluss is a work of fiction based on actual dialogues with schizophrenic patients, diabolically 'sane' psychotherapists, and well-meaning yet unerringly destructive social workers. It chronicles the descent of an eccentric, sardonic, and witty psychiatrist into what appears to be a state of complete madness. Written in an evocative, lyrical prose style, the tale achieves a magical life of its own as the narrative twists, turns, and accelerates along with the doctor's free fall into the self. Doctor Pluss demonstrates how ideation and speech may be surrealistically transformed into a broken-language delirium that, despite its strangeness, remains eerily accessible.

Critical acclaim for Rob Couteau's novel, Doctor Pluss, and his anthology, Collected Couteau: 'Amazingly beautiful, haunting prose. It's a great book.' - Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, author of E.E. Cummings; The Continual Pilgrimage: American Writers in Paris, 1944-1960; and An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles.

'Intellectual freshness, richness and potency ...' '[An] impressively creative writer, whom [Barney] Rosset urged me to review.' - Jim Feast, author of Neo Phobe, from his Evergreen Review essay on Doctor Pluss and Collected Couteau (December 2009). ... Read more

Product Description
The Paris Journals begins with Couteau's journey to the city of his distant ancestors. There, he lived a dream: to successfully expatriate to France. Taxed by his work as a counselor for Manhattan's homeless mentally ill, and alienated by the materialism of the 'go-go' 1980s, he yearned not only for escape but also for creative rebirth. Determined to pursue his literary and artistic endeavors in a more 'antique' setting, he relocated to Paris on December 2, 1988. In the tradition of George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London and of Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, and with only a few French words and even fewer francs in his pocket, he led a precarious life of subsistence. Despite this marginal existence, he maintained an emotionally rich, creative life. Most importantly, he mastered his literary craft and eventually began to paint again. After a dozen years abroad he returned to the States, satisfied that his 'rebirth' was now complete.

In this and in his epistolary memoir, Letters from Paris, we have a chronicle that is earthy and Rabelaisian as well as reflective and philosophical. It includes portraits of an often bizarre mentalité française; the expatriate's struggle to master his creative form; and contemplations on art, literature, and culture. Meditations on spirituality and mysticism alternate with erotic cameos rendered in a droll, sophisticated yet vaudevillian manner.

Critical acclaim for Rob Couteau's novel, Doctor Pluss, and his anthology, Collected Couteau: 'Amazingly beautiful, haunting prose. It's a great book.' - Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, author of E.E. Cummings; The Continual Pilgrimage: American Writers in Paris, 1944-1960; and An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles.

'Intellectual freshness, richness and potency ...' '[An] impressively creative writer, whom [Barney] Rosset urged me to review.' - Jim Feast, author of Neo Phobe, from his Evergreen Review essay on Doctor Pluss and Collected Couteau (Dec. 2009). ... Read more

Product Description
'Rob Couteau has assembled his creative and impeccable research … into a book subtitled 'Planetary Symbolism in Transcendental Astrology' ... Astrologers with a serious interest in locational astrology and mapping techniques will be enthralled by this book, as will all those who appreciate innovative astrological thinking.' - Mary Plumb, The Mountain Astrologer, Oct./Nov. 2006

Praise for the original online version of The Role of the Least-Aspected Planet:

'Couteau's astrocartography is not only a good primer on locational astrology but a cogent presentation of his theory that the least-aspected planet in anyone's chart is a key to understanding not only the horoscope but also the person's place in the world … Celebrity and historical charts aplenty illustrate Couteau's thesis … He also explains how midpoints, 'parans,' and other complications figure into his Transcendental Planet scheme.... and he furnishes ample case studies in support of his theory, both in terms of biographies and in relation to historic events. There's a great deal more besides … and there’s even a second volume with more on Transcendental Planets.' –Richard Nolle, author of Interpreting Astrology; Critical Astrology; and Chiron.

'I've just checked into your Web site, and I am extremely impressed with your discoveries and presentation! Thank you. Please know that your work requires / deserves much time for study and assimilation…. I feel it is really a 'book' that all of us should study.' - Noel Tyl, author of Synthesis & Counseling In Astrology: The Professional Manual.

'Your material is superb ... Because of my interest in aspects as well as Astro*Carto*Graphy, I found your discussion of least-aspected planets very interesting … Had never looked at this concept in astrocartography before and am excited with what I've found.' –Donna Van Toen, author of The Astrologer's Node Book and The Mars Book.

'I visited your new site today and was quite bowled over by the wealth of material there! This is a high-quality contribution to our field.' - Donna Cunningham, author of An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness.

495 pages; complete, unabridged text by renowned astrocartographer Rob Couteau. Up-to-date Fourth, Revised Edition. ... Read more

Product Description
'Rob Couteau has assembled his creative and impeccable research into a book subtitled Planetary Symbolism in Transcendental Astrology. Astrologers with a serious interest in locational astrology and mapping techniques will be enthralled by this book, as will all those who appreciate innovative astrological thinking.' - Mary Plumb, The Mountain Astrologer magazine, Oct./Nov. 2006.

Praise for the online version of The Role of the Least-Aspected Planet: 'Couteau's astrocartography is not only a good primer on locational astrology but a cogent presentation of his theory that the least-aspected planet in anyone's chart is a key to understanding not only the horoscope but also the person's place in the world. Celebrity and historical charts aplenty illustrate Couteau's thesis, and he furnishes ample case studies in support of his theory, both in terms of biographies and in relation to historic events. There's a great deal more besides, and there's even a second volume with more on Transcendental Planets.' - Richard Nolle,author of Interpreting Astrology; Critical Astrology; and Chiron. 'I've just checked into your Web site, and I am extremely impressed with your discoveries and presentation! Thank you. Please know that your work requires / deserves much time for study and assimilation. I feel it is really a 'book' that all of us should study.' - Noel Tyl, author of Synthesis & Counseling In Astrology: The Professional Manual.

'Your material is superb ... Because of my interest in aspects as well as Astro*Carto*Graphy, I found your discussion of least-aspected planets very interesting. Had never looked at this concept in astrocartography before and am excited with what I've found.' - Donna Van Toen, author of The Astrologer's Node Book and The Mars Book.

The book contains 495 pages and is printed in a large, 8" x 11" format. It also comes with a CD featuring numerous graphics, such as astrocartography maps and horoscopes. ... Read more

Product Description
Collected Couteau features an anthology the author’s writings and publications. It contains the only complete, unabridged versions of interviews with Ray Bradbury and Last Exit to Brooklyn author Hubert Selby. The 192-page trade-sized paperback also features an unabridged interview with Paul Bowles' biographer, Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, in which the latter discusses Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, and the Beats. Also included are two essays on Walt Whitman, an essay on Paul Klee's 'Lost in Thought,' and numerous book reviews, including reviews of
Tea in the Harem, by Mehdi Charef; The Demon and The Room, by Hubert Selby; Libra, by Don DeLillo; Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez; The Mustache, by Emmanuel Carrère; A Literate Passion: and Letters of Anais Nin and Henry Miller. The book also contains a selection of the author's poems and a review of Allen Ginsberg's 1990 photography show in Paris.

Critical acclaim for Rob Couteau's novel, Doctor Pluss, and his anthology, Collected Couteau: 'Amazingly beautiful, haunting prose. It's a great book.' - Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno, author of The Continual Pilgrimage: American Writers in Paris, 1944-1960 and An Invisible Spectator: A Biography of Paul Bowles. 'Intellectual freshness, richness and potency ...' '[An] impressively creative writer, whom [Barney] Rosset urged me to review.' - Jim Feast, author of Neo Phobe, from his Evergreen Review essay on Doctor Pluss and Collected Couteau (December 2009). ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Reviewer's Bookwatch, published by Midwest Book Review on August 1, 2010. The length of the article is 448 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Buhle's Bookshelf.(Book review)
Author: Willis M. Buhle
Publication: Reviewer's Bookwatch (Newsletter)
Date: August 1, 2010
Publisher: Midwest Book Review
Page: NA

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more