Muffins - Softcover
`Muffins is a square; it has a vinyl cover of a photograph of Rooke and his wife and another woman (their daughter?). The photograph-cover, if one ``reads'' it closely, shows the daughter reading a book; her back is facing her parents who are at a table eating -- or about to eat -- muffins. There is a book case stuffed with books ``arranged'' in a messy way. The photograph has in the middle a rectangle in white lines and the words in different typefaces (and colours): Muffins and Leon Rooke under Muffins. The effect is startling because I see photographs of books within the book itself. And I am thus aware that there is a carefully designed book-within-the-book. And I start thinking about the relation of the various elements I have mentioned. Is the cover the beginning of the book? Does it, on the contrary, tell a secret story? I see, finally, that I as reader or viewer must interpret the relations, must join -- or create -- the performance of interpretation. In a sense, then, I am writing a review of the photograph of the author. And I have not yet opened Muffins! My consciousness is whirling!'
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
From the Author:
About the Author:
Books in Canada cover
Books in Canada: Earlier you mentioned Isabel Allende's magical stories. The girl in ``Muffins'' with her lizard necklace -- she's a creature from fable, isn't she, ``fabulous'' like so many of your characters?
Rooke: I believe there's something in the human spirit that hungers for that kind of presence in one's life. And our own experiences from day to day contain that element to a degree that would astonish us. And it's very useful, we need that kind of magic, we need to believe in the spiritual element, because without it how do you live with the atrocities, people all over the globe doing hideous things to each other. It's the sense of revitalization one feels every spring -- I mean the difference between these trees now and a month ago -- it was just stark, ugly, and bare. And now it's opulent, verdancy totally embracing all over the place. I equate that magical presence of the extraordinary with what happens in nature. Just the other day I was standing in this room, and I thought, when I turn around I'm going to see a fish in that river -- I knew it -- and I did and there was a big pike -- about this long -- swimming right out on the water. Had I thought longer about it, I might have thought, what is it going to mean? [laughter It's that connection that happens with amazing, amazing frequency.
Books in Canada: The conjunction of the magical and the quotidian.
Rooke: Yes. And it seems to me that it happens a great deal more often to those people who invite it -- who issue the invitation that life does hold those riches if one will only welcome them.
Books in Canada: And that's what your fiction is about?
Rooke: Yes.
An energetic and prolific storyteller, Leon Rooke's writing is characterized by inventive language, experimental form and an extreme range of characters with distinctive voices. He has written a number of plays for radio and stage and produced numerous collections of short stories. It is his novels, however, that have received the most critical acclaim. Fat Woman (1980) was shortlisted for the Governor General's Award and won the Paperback Novel of the Year Award. Shakespeare's Dog won the Governor General's Award in 1983. As a play, Shakespeare's Dog has toured as far afield as Barcelona and Edinburgh. A Good Baby was made into a feature film. Rooke founded the Eden Mills Writers' Festival in 1989. In 2007, Rooke was made a member of the Order of Canada. Other awards include the Canada/Australia prize, the W O Mitchell Award, the North Carolina Award for Literature and two ReLits (for short fiction and poetry). In 2012, he was the winner of the Gloria Vanderbilt Carter V Cooper Fiction Award. Recently, Rooke's works The Fall of Gravity and Shakespeare's Dog were produced in new editions for France and Italy, two countries where his work has been greatly admired.
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- PublisherPorcupine's Quill
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0889841675
- ISBN 13 9780889841673
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages24
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Muffins
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Erin, Ontario, Canada: Porcupines Quill
(1995)
ISBN 10: 0889841675
ISBN 13: 9780889841673
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Book Description Soft cover. Condition: New. 1st Edition. Original printed wraps. 24 pp. Octavo. `Muffins is a square; it has a vinyl cover of a photograph of Rooke and his wife and another woman (their daughter?). The photograph-cover, if one `reads' it closely, shows the daughter reading a book; her back is facing her parents who are at a table eating -- or about to eat -- muffins. There is a book case stuffed with books `arranged' in a messy way. The photograph has in the middle a rectangle in white lines and the words in different typefaces (and colours): Muffins and Leon Rooke under Muffins. The effect is startling because I see photographs of books within the book itself. And I am thus aware that there is a carefully designed book-within-the-book. And I start thinking about the relation of the various elements I have mentioned. Is the cover the beginning of the book? Does it, on the contrary, tell a secret story? I see, finally, that I as reader or viewer must interpret the relations, must join -- or create -- the performance of interpretation. In a sense, then, I am writing a review of the photograph of the author. And I have not yet opened Muffins! My consciousness is whirling!' Printed offset by Tim Inkster on the Heidelberg KORD at the printing office of the Porcupine's Quill in the Village of Erin, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. Smyth sewn into 16-page signatures. Seller Inventory # 9780889841673
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