Soft Zipper
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. This engaging memoir relates stories about George Bowering's small-town BC upbringing and his parents—his father long dead and his mother more recently passed on at the age of 100—while at the same time honouring the author's other "parents:" Gertrude Stein, Charles Olson, and Roland Barthes. Borrowing a structure and some precepts about writing from Stein, Bowering remains true to his inimitable self, relating his recollections and observations, his ever-curious mind travelling across the decades as he recounts some of the objects, food, rooms, and people that have shaped his engagement with the world. Charles Olson's ideas about proprioception shape Bowering's approach to himself as "an object among objects" (and, with increasing age and frailty, even one containing numerous objects), while Roland Barthes's writing strategies also make themselves felt throughout.

But these stories wear their learning lightly—it's ridiculously easy to enjoy these wise and gentle reminiscences of an older writer who spent his childhood in sunny South Okanagan, without even noticing the carefully wrought structure.

1138802069
Soft Zipper
Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. This engaging memoir relates stories about George Bowering's small-town BC upbringing and his parents—his father long dead and his mother more recently passed on at the age of 100—while at the same time honouring the author's other "parents:" Gertrude Stein, Charles Olson, and Roland Barthes. Borrowing a structure and some precepts about writing from Stein, Bowering remains true to his inimitable self, relating his recollections and observations, his ever-curious mind travelling across the decades as he recounts some of the objects, food, rooms, and people that have shaped his engagement with the world. Charles Olson's ideas about proprioception shape Bowering's approach to himself as "an object among objects" (and, with increasing age and frailty, even one containing numerous objects), while Roland Barthes's writing strategies also make themselves felt throughout.

But these stories wear their learning lightly—it's ridiculously easy to enjoy these wise and gentle reminiscences of an older writer who spent his childhood in sunny South Okanagan, without even noticing the carefully wrought structure.

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Soft Zipper

Soft Zipper

by George Bowering
Soft Zipper

Soft Zipper

by George Bowering

Overview

Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. This engaging memoir relates stories about George Bowering's small-town BC upbringing and his parents—his father long dead and his mother more recently passed on at the age of 100—while at the same time honouring the author's other "parents:" Gertrude Stein, Charles Olson, and Roland Barthes. Borrowing a structure and some precepts about writing from Stein, Bowering remains true to his inimitable self, relating his recollections and observations, his ever-curious mind travelling across the decades as he recounts some of the objects, food, rooms, and people that have shaped his engagement with the world. Charles Olson's ideas about proprioception shape Bowering's approach to himself as "an object among objects" (and, with increasing age and frailty, even one containing numerous objects), while Roland Barthes's writing strategies also make themselves felt throughout.

But these stories wear their learning lightly—it's ridiculously easy to enjoy these wise and gentle reminiscences of an older writer who spent his childhood in sunny South Okanagan, without even noticing the carefully wrought structure.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781554201723
Publisher: New Star Books
Publication date: 03/25/2021
Pages: 160
Product dimensions: 4.60(w) x 7.20(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

George Bowering is the author of around a hundred books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His most recent work includes SOFT ZIPPER (New Star Books, 2021), WRITING AND READING (New Star Books, 2019), SOME END / WEST BROADWAY (New Star Books, 2018) with George Stanley, A SHORT SAD BOOK (New Star Books, 2017) and 10 WOMEN ( Anvil Press, 2015).A Member of the Order of Canada, and a two-time Governor General's Award laureate, he lives in Vancouver.
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