Robert Gluck Livres

Lust, religious zeal, and heartache come together in this provocative novel about two infatuations, one between a man and his young lover in the late 20th century and another between a 15th-century woman and Jesus Christ. First published in 1994, Robert Glück’s Margery Kempe is one of the most provocative, poignant, and inventive American novels of the last quarter century. The book tells two stories of romantic obsession. One, based on the first autobiography in English, the medieval Book of Margery Kempe, is about a fifteenth-century woman from East Anglia, a visionary, a troublemaker, a pilgrim to the Holy Land, and an aspiring saint, and her love affair with Jesus. It is complicated. The other is about the author’s own love for an alluring and elusive young American, L. It is complicated. Between these two Margery Kempe, the novel, emerges as an unprecedented exploration of desire, devotion, abjection, and sexual obsession in the form of a novel like no other novel. Robert Glück’s masterpiece bears comparison with the finest work of such writers as Kathy Acker and Chris Kraus. This edition includes an essay by Glück about the creation of the book titled "My Margery, Margery's Bob."

"I was a writer, but not the writer I needed to be. For that I had to become a different person," Robert Glück reflects on his journey in a recent interview. His work is a portrait of Ed Aulerich-Sugai, a former lover he met in 1970s San Francisco, a time when gay life emerged boldly. Glück sought to connect with Ed in a way that transcended his own fears and insecurities, aiming for a deeper understanding of life through Ed. This book serves as both a novel and a personal AIDS memoir, capturing the complexity of his feelings for Ed—ranging from estrangement to profound connection. It explores their shared life filled with art, writing, family, sex, and death, while also examining how memories evolve over time and impact the present. Glück poses the question, "What is the right question to ask about a life?" and describes the work as a collaborative effort, with Ed contributing insights that shaped the narrative. After Ed's death, Glück utilized Ed's dream journals, which began in 1970, as a source of inspiration. These journals served not as mere records but as a rich tapestry of images for creative exploration. Ultimately, this book stands as a challenging and beautiful testament to the complexities of love, memory, and artistry by one of America's most innovative writers.