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Available
from: or
Click
here to hear Laurie read from the first few pages of The Bohemians
(recorded at Full-Track Productions in Seattle). |
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Praise for The Bohemians |
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"Blauner's language is exquisite. Every page has another delight,
the unexpected turn or phrasing, the striking detail and vivid image. In this
story of artists and lovers, you'll feel you've entered one of the
character's paintings, the brushstrokes sure, the colors fantastical. It's wonderful reading prose written by a poet." -- Sharman Apt Russell, author of Hunger: an Unnatural History, and Standing in
the Light |
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"In The Bohemians, Laurie Blauner artfully captures
the Jazz Age—a period that is liberating, decadent, and bewildering for
Leon, the accountant, but even more so for the artist Lil, who, despite her Bohemian
recklessness and disdain for social norms, is overwhelmed by the rapidly
changing boundaries of her world. Tight as a stretched canvas and colorful as
a still-life of split-open ripe fruit, Blauner's
prose captures both the gullibility and skepticism of her characters amid the
naiveté and boldness of the time. The crafty inclusion of sensationalist news
stories, ads for remedies, and cameos by F. Scott Fitzgerald and others of
the famed Algonquin makes this novel, in the lingo of the day, the 'bee's
knees.'" -- Donna Miscolta, author of When the de la Cruz Family
Danced |
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Similar to our day, the Jazz Age
was a period of fast-moving transition, when the growing pains of a
metamorphosing society seemed to trigger the simultaneous but opposing
responses of puissance and ennui... Blauner invests this story with rich
imagery and metaphor, and further augments her tale with the jetsam of the
times. The Leopold and Loeb case...grabs everyone's attention with the
defendants' admission that they killed for the thrill of it. Talent scouts
for the moving picture industry hold beauty pageants seeking young women with
"sex appeal." The King Tut exhibit in New York causes a sensation
with rumors of the curse of the tomb. And Peppy Cigarettes advertise that
their "aristocratic flavor" will not only help people eat fewer
sweets but also "keep in good shape and always feel lively."
Swathed in smoke and awash in bootleg liquor, "The Bohemians"
etches out a time that was both decadent and naive, yet seems quaint now....
Illusion and disillusionment get careful consideration in this probing book. --Barbara Lloyd McMichael, The
Bellingham Herald |
Copyright ©
2013 Laurie Blauner, all rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction by any
means strictly prohibited.