Cains book and millions of other books are available for amazon kindle. Alexander trocchi a life in pieces part 12 youtube. Written in america while trocchi was working on a scow on the hudson river, cain s book is an extraordinary autobiographical account about a junkys life, and. Cains alexander trocchi cains alexander trocchi cains alexander trocchi cains book is a 1960 novel by scottish beat writer alexander trocchi. This is the journal of joe necchi, a junkie living on a barge that plies the rivers and bays of new york joe s world is the half world of drugs and addicts the world of f. Cains book 1960 by alexander trocchi is a text about heroin addiction. Cains film 1969 documentary on alexander trocchi 1925 84, scottish born writer, poet, translator and author of young adam and cains. Trocchi was then deep in the throes of heroin addiction. He injected himself on camera during a live television debate on drug abuse, despite being on bail at the time. James mallahan cain july 1, 1892 october 27, 1977 was an american author and journalist. Alexander trocchi download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. Several of his crime novels inspired successful movies.
Alexander trocchi was one of the seminal beat figures. Joes world is the halfworld of drugs and addictsthe world of furtive fixes in sordid harlem apartments, of police pursuits down deserted subway. A compelling existential thriller by the beatera writer. On the third or fourth pillar below the greats in the literary pantheon.
A roman a clef, it details the life of joe necchi, a heroin addict and writer, who is living and. Glasgowborn alexander trocchi was a fiery figure in the british literary world an editor in paris, an avantgarde novelist with an internationalist mindset before he parked himself in a desolate london siding labelled obscure heroinaddicted exwriter. So begins cains book, alexander trocchis incredible novel of existential dread. Id dreamed of being a writer since i was four, but when i graduated college, i decided i should be practical. Like christopher marlowe in doctor faustus or herman melville in moby dick, hes mapping a whole cosmogony, intuiting his way towards an understanding of a social, po. No doubt i shall go on writing, stumbling across tundras of unmeaning, planting words like. His wife lyn prostituted herself on the streets of the lower east side. By susan cain when at age 33 i quit corporate law to become a writer, most people i knew, including my very own self, thought i was nuts. How i quit my job and became a writer quiet revolution. Cains book is about a scowman working the waters of new york.
Trocchi, especially in this, his masterpiece, along with writers such as william. Trocchi shared a number of lifestyle similarities with burroughs. Grove press, 1960, his autobiographical novel and literary triumph, banned in britain upon its publication there in 1963, recounting his days and nights as a writer in new york while working as a scow pilot on the docks, scoring junk and getting high. Spatial subversion in alexander trocchis young adam and. He lived in paris in the early 1950s and edited the literary magazine merlin, which published henry miller, samuel beckett, christopher logue and pablo neruda, among others. Alexander trocchi was the smackaddled icon of beat literature, whose writings have been eclipsed by a lurid life of porn, pimping and dissolution in new york, paris and london. Ulin is the author, most recently, of the novel ear to the ground. Young adam, its predecessor, is better known, but the latter is the scottish beats classic.
Young adam, its predecessor, is better known, but the latter is. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. Banned books part 2 cains book by alexander trocchi youtube. Tasker g 2014 spatial subversion in alexander trocchis young adam and cains book. Probably the most famous novel about drug addiction and the hazards and excitements of an addicts life after burroughs naked lunch, this. Cain s book by alexander trocchi book cover, description, publication history. Cains book gets 4 stars from me now these days the philosophical rants and wraiths are too neither here nor there for me these days.
Cains book is a 1960 novel by scottish beat writer alexander trocchi. In the less exalted gallery of crime writers, he would come well after the holy trinity of hammett, chandler, and macdonald a commercial writer who never really rose above his magazine origins. The junky genius of alexander trocchi books the guardian. I picked up helen and desire after being impressed with trocchis cains book and young adam. The back of my copy has a blurb that says all the egomaniac vitality of the early henry miller, but miller was far more joyous and trocchi a straight and narrow nihilist. To ask other readers questions about cains book, please sign up. Even before cains book was published in britain, trocchi was scheming to shock. Alexander trocchi 19251984 was a scottish novelist whose numerous works include cains book.
Born in scotland, he made his way in paris and new york, and young adam is one of his most important, isbn 9780802126177 buy the young adam. Martyn wade, chief executive and national librarian introduces cain s book by scottish beat generation writer alexander trocchi. Trocchi s final and most feted work apart from the oddsandends poetry shambles, man at leisure, a. Shop amongst our popular books, including, cains book, young adam and more from alexander trocchi. Alexander trocchi was the leading british beat writer of the 1950s and 60s. Literary history heroin addict project sigma french writer lower east side. Publishing history cains book was released to acclaim in the usa, but when it was published in the alexanrer by john calder it provoked an outcry and was the subject of an obscenity trial brought by sheffield city council due to its depiction. If the experience of heroin, of the fix, is central to cains book, both its destructive force and the possibilities it holds for creativity are recognized and accepted without apology. Cains book by alexander trocchi book cover, description, publication history. This is the journal of joe necchi, a junkie living on a barge that plies the rivers and bays of new york. Calder, london, paris, new york, 1st calder edition, 1992, 1992. Trocchis gifts of description and insight shine forth in prose. Young adam tells the story of joe, a drifter who works on a barge traveling the. The book of genesis has exerted a powerful influence on western thought, a fact recognized in a recent television series, genesis, by bill moyers.
That plea has just come into the marketplace, along with trocchis personal, handpainted copy of cains book ny. Author alexander trocchis muse was drugsbut in this novel, he does not romanticize the source of his inspiration. Kathy acker cain s book is a high priests raging celebration of the ironinthesoul, american style. Trocchi is a writer with an unique skill recognisable within his every sentance. Alexander trocchi was a major figure in cosmopolitan newconsciousness fifties and sixties literature, and cains book is his signal novel. Written in america while trocchi was working on a scow on the hudson river, cains book is an extraordinary autobiographical account about a junkys life, and an honest, raunchy, eyeopening trip through hell.
Trocchi, alexander, seaver, richard, marcus, greil. Spatial subversion in alexander trocchis young adam and cains book. But trocchi was an independent writer of immense gifts and cains book, rather than being a downbeat, depressing look at a sordid subject, is quite the reverse. In the first program of that series, on cain and abel, a panel of commentators discussed the story as a literal narrative, especially exploring its psychological implications. Jesus, himself, commented on this period as the days of noah were matthew 24. Cain vehemently opposed labeling, but he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of american crime fiction and is seen as one of the creators of the roman noir. So begins cain s book, alexander trocchi s incredible novel of existential dread. Allen ginsberg cant write about writing so will simply say that i find it excellent, very strong and movingall the visual writing in particularit seems to me of the highest order. Cain s film 1969 documentary on alexander trocchi 1925 84, scottish born writer, poet, translator and author of young adam and cain s. In cains book the writing is all the words ebb and flow like the inky blackness of the hudson river. It is a tragic shame how overlooked trocchis work has become over the years, although he seems to be getting some attention again now. Authors second novel set in new york and a picture of a drug addicts life. Joes world is the halfworld of drugs and addictsthe world of furtive fixes in sordid harlem apartments, of police pursuits down deserted subway stations.
Predominantly published in the 1950s and 1960s, trocchi was a glasgowborn avantgarde writer whose oeuvre is usually associated with french existentialism, the beat generation, and londons counterculture, due to his cosmopolitan lifestyle and experimental aestheticism. Written in america while trocchi was working on a scow on the hudson river, cains book is an extraordinary autobiographical account about a junkys life. Although he was never published in merlin, american writer terry southern who lived in paris from 19481952 became a close friend of both trocchi and his. Trocchi, especially in this, his masterpiece, along with writers such as william burroughs, taught me that writers do not make up stories but attempt to find the truth. John tytells foundational study naked angels analyzes the beats primarily in terms of the american tradition the beat movement was a crystallization of a sweeping discontent with american virtues of progress and power. Buy cains book by alexander trocchi from waterstones today. Trocchi had first hand experience of drug addiction and was a central figure in the beat movement. Everyone should read young adam the times literary supplement. A beatera novel of heroin addiction in 1950s new york city that was called a treasure by ken kesey. He resided mainly in paris and new york throughout his life.
Alexander trocchi pdf biography of the novelist, alexander trocchi on undiscovered scotland. Martyn wade, chief executive and national librarian introduces cains book by scottish beat generation writer alexander trocchis and looks at some of the reasons why it was banned on. Adam and cains book alexander trocchi, william burroughs described its author as a cosmonaut of inner space. Let them dedicate a year to pinball and think again. Bookmark file pdf cains book alexander trocchi alexander trocchi. When glaswegian writer alexander trocchi appeared at the edinburgh.
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