Monday, October 3, 2011

Laurie Gough is the Feminist Kerouac

Laurie Gough is the feminist Jack Kerouac. She weaves a lyrical narrative as intricate as the Moroccan carpets she was once drugged into buying. I picked up her book Kite Strings of the Southern Cross with no intention of surrendering my machismo virtue to gooey Goughy prose. Yet, Laurie seduced and ravaged me against my will, and I must say, "I liked it!"

Laurie is a redhaired beauty with freckles on her creamy shoulders that call out to be included among the known constellations. Connecting the dots of heavenly stars and Pacific islands, her book also connects the dots on why travelers wander. Humans have migratory instincts.

Before a political line was drawn across this continent branding folks Americans or Canadians, indigenous people migrated with changing seasons. Now, folks are told to settle down and act respectable. Yet, Laurie failed to get the message. Good for her. Perhaps, feral memories from Laurie's primitive American birthplace summoned her out of her civilized Canadian home like Buck in Call of the Wild was lured into the moonlit forest by savage dogs. Whatever the case, her book rocks. 

I fondly remember meeting Laurie. I was sitting at a hotel in Mexico, when she deliberately positioned herself about ten feet away and proceeded to make Gough-Gough eyes in my direction for nearly an hour. Finally, I walked up and thrust my manly junk into her warm porcelain hand. That's right. I gave her a copy of my book after her workshop at the San Miguel Writers' Convention. I can only hope my stuff satisfied her like her stuff satisfied me. Honestly, she was one of the best pieces of literature I've ever had. Er ... done? Uh ... read. Oh, oh, oh Canada! Sorry Laurie, aint easy makin' a livin' on American guy lit, 'cause as you seem to grasp, American men can hardly read.

9 comments:

  1. Very funny! I haven't heard of her, but I'll have to check her work out.

    We Canucks aren't that civilized, you know...

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  2. William,

    Yes, I do know. I'm quite fond of my fellow barbarians in Alberta. However, I consider Vancouver my second home and owe the beginning of my writing habit to fine Canadian publications like Outdoor Canada, The Dalhousie Review, Monday Magazine, and Canadian Ethnic Studies.

    I actually did find Canadians to be generally more literary than Americans, but whenever writers take the customary and obligatory jabs at men and Yanks, I feel duty bound to jab back in defense of my tribe. Hopefully, Laurie won't mind me poking her in fun, but to show my usual sensitivity, I'm willing to poke her anyway she prefers.

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  3. i like me the book, the woman is beauntiful .....

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  4. it's very interesting, i like the picture

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  5. My name is María del Carmen Díaz Chávez

    I find it very interesting article on the book by Laurie Gough, but would be more interesting read and well able to speak better about it. I think you need to read more.

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  6. This is one of my favorite books and authors. Cheers to Laurie Gough! Thanks for spotlighting such a quality read, Lyn.

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  7. I dug it big time, Mittie. Plus, crude joking aside, her book is deeply spiritual, in contrast with so much superficial "been there, done that, stayed there, ate that" travel writing.

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  8. Leydy Hernandez YescasOctober 4, 2011 at 8:48 PM

    My name is Leydy
    the woman in the picture is very very beautiful.
    her eyes are beautiful.

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  9. My name is Jose luis Sanchez del Valle


    She is beatiful and her book is very interesting

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