This blog's purpose is to promote the novel, The Long Habit of Living, by Mark Zipoli. Posts have excerpts from the book and related visuals to give the reader a heightened literary experience. Oftentimes posts may refer to my championing the works of John Cowper Powys, Orhan Pamuk, Doris Lessing, Anita Brookner, and other heroes.
From page 357 of the book: I felt in my blood the lance of betrayal that he imagined had piked him.I saw the streamers flowing from the lance, characters of the fish and the symbol of Saint Peter blending together around his face.
Painting of St. Peter's crucifixion
A composite I made of a lance piercing the symbol of St. Peter, the Vatican
[In ecclesiastical heraldry, the Papal coat of arms contain the keys of the office of St. Peter. The Keys of Heaven were, according to Christian tradition, received by Saint Peter from Jesus, marking Peter's ability to take binding actions.[1] Thus, the Keys are seen as a symbol of Papal authority still to this day. "Behold he [Peter] received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the power of binding and loosing is committed to him, the care of the whole Church and its government is given to him [cura ei totius Ecclesiae et principatus committitur]
From page 346 of the book: Shanzenbach suddenly began to sing "The Marseillaise," the French national anthem, with Owen providing accompaniment.
"How I love that song," cried Revenant. "Tell the Good Walter about 'The Marseillaise.'"
"I don't want to give a history lesson," said Ebert. "I'm half drunk."
"You know, Walter," began Revenant, "it was composed in 1792, at the beginning of the Revolutionary Wars. That little man, Napoleon, he didn't like it. Screw him."
Vineyard of Mourvedre grapes. The Mourvèdre grape produces tannic wines that can be high in alcohol, and is most successful in Rhone-style blends, with a particular affinity for Grenache, softening it and giving it structure. It often has a wild, gamey or earthy flavour, with soft red fruit flavours. (Text courtesy of Wikipedia)
Ambrose Dudley painting of Phocean Greeks defeating Cathaginians
Domaine Bandol
Greek plate depicting...yes, the serving of wine
From pages 343-344 of the book: "I walked into a café on the rue September Fourth," he continued. "I sat down and ordered a bottle of wine. Romassan. I drank the entire bottle and ordered another. When I'd begun my third bottle, I could hear voices at a table in the corner. Men were watching me. They felt sorry for me. They said, Look, there's Ebert, drowning his sorrows in wine because his boy is dead. They said, Look, Ebert will drink away his pain. Notre frère boirá les afflictions du monde.
"But they were wrong," he said. "The fools. I was drinking because the wine was superb. The vintage was Mourvèdre. Its vines were carried over by the Phocean Greeks five centuries before Christ, you know. La balance! L'harmonie! La bouquet! All were...uplifting. I drank because it tasted good!"
From page 344 of the book: Regretfully, I listened as Owen joined them, dealing the cards, winning pot after pot of chips, relating episodes of his childhood and his adolescence, especially those incidents concerning the discovery of sex and the failure of love. They were full of disappointment and unrealized expectations. He talked of injured cousins, divorced aunts, infant deaths, business failures, heart attacks, teenage abortions, and friends' cancer. The old men hooted and howled and begged him for more. They called him 'General.' They called him 'Professor.' They called him 'Our Man in Havana.' Whistles by the old priest nearly shocked me to sobriety. Revenant grasped Owen's hands and said to him: "Do your best, my friend. We ask only that you do your best. Don't be afraid."
Clockwise from top left: Cover for the novel "Our Man in Havana" by Graham Greene; Graham Greene, 1904-1991, English author, playwright and literary critic; Book cover photo of Greene's "A Life in Letters"; Alec Guiness as James Wormold in the movie version; movie poster; scene from the movie with Alec Guiness and Ernie Kovacs (Captain Segura).
The black & white film version of this book, which I actually just saw a couple days ago, is incredible. Produced & Directed by the great Carol Reed (if you don't recall Reed, he did "The Third Man"), its comedy is brilliantly entwined with its suspense, all fixed against the shadows and strange sources of light of Reed's view of pre-Reveolutionary Cuba, although the movie was filmed just after Castro overthrew the government of the previous dictator. I highly recommend this film. It's available from Netflix. And one more thing, Ernie Kovacs does a stupendous job, as does Noel Coward.
