CAROL JAMESON at Books Inc. Berkeley
Join Books Inc. Berkeley in welcoming local author Carol Jameson for a celebration of her novel Adam and Leonora!
Told through multiple voices in multiple time periods—Leonora, an artist and scientist obsessed with the work of surrealist painter Adam Sinclair, in 1990s Santa Cruz, CA; Pauline, Adam’s wife, in 1940s NYC; and Mimi Saucier, Adam's lover, in 1930s Paris—Adam and Leonora is a transporting work about the power of dreams, the creative process, and the surreal.
Adam Sinclair is a reclusive surrealist painter, in search of his muse and obsessed with his visions, who lives in a vast artist’s compound in the Santa Cruz mountains. Leonora Bloom is an artist and scientist who isn’t sure why she is so drawn to a man she’s never met yet can’t shake her obsession with him. After years of hiking the ridge above Adam’s property, she finally knocks on his door.
Inside Adam’s house, enormous paintings of golden spirals, cosmic stars, and cobalt universes cover the walls, vibrating with energy and mystery—and though he is aloof, the chemistry between him and Leonora is immediate. When the younger woman catches a glimpse of an old black-and-white photograph of his deceased wife, Pauline, who could be her twin, she begins to understand why.
Interwoven with Leonora’s tale are the voices of modern-day Don Quixote Adam’s muses: Pauline, a talented writer who lives in both 1940s New York City and Mexico; and Mimi Saucier, a sultry singer from 1930s Paris. The two women play off characters of the Surrealist movement including André Breton, Remedios Varo, and Wolfgang Paalen, creating worlds of dreamy enchantment. Filled with intrigue and tension, secrets and admissions, and the colorful imagery of a painter’s mind, Adam and Leonora explores Leonora’s quest to discover Adam’s secret to the creative pulse of life—a journey into the surreal.
“Carol Jameson has a rare talent for delight. In reanimating past artists, poets, and lovers, she snares them in a Midsummer Night’s Dream of pure storytelling intoxication. Even her André Breton is halfway loveable!”
—Jonathan Lethem, New York Times best-selling author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude
“Jameson has written a wonderful novel, layered with romantic escapades and philosophical musings on Art and Life. She deftly handles different places and historical time periods from Paris on the cusp of war, to New York, Mexico, and Los Angeles. Adam is the archetypal male artist, a modern Don Quixote in search of the Ideal, while André Breton, as Sancho Panza, offers counsel that fluctuates between brilliance and buffoonery. The women—Pauline, Mimi, and Leonora—are visionary artists in their own right. Adam and Leonora is executed in a fluid literary style reminiscent of the great studies of human folly.”
—Summer Brenner, author of The Missing Lover
“I ‘watched’ this novel as if I were viewing a Bunuel film, delighted and surprised by the quick geographic and emotional twists, and by a take on romance (mad love!) that characterizes the best of surrealism.”
—Owen Hill, author of the Clay Blackburn novels
“An ambitious blend of fiction and art history, author Carol Jameson explores the powerful and often provocative role that dreams can play in everyday life. Fans of surrealism are sure to enjoy.”
—Victoria Lilienthal, author of the award-winning novel The T Room
Carol Jameson is an educator, swimmer, and pianist. She created and coedited the online zine Hello Goodbye Apocalyse, a journal of pandemic writings and artwork, and is the author of The Kaiser Stories and It Builds in the Brain. Currently, she writes two blogs: Pool Purrs, a collection of swimming stories, and Walk with CJ, a collection of walking stories that began during the pandemic. She has an MFA in creative writing and literature from Mills College and teaches writing in San Francisco Bay Area colleges. She lives in Richmond, California, with her naughty orange tabby cat, Clara.
