Poet, travel writer, teacher, film-extra in Laurence Olivier's Hamlet, quiz-show panelist - Kildare Dobbs has played many parts, been many places, met many people. His life's journey, marked by frequent detours and diversions, from Asia to old Europe, Africa and the New World, is that of the quintessential post-colonial Western man at large. In Running the Rapids Dobbs becomes voyageur. He takes us from a lamp-lit, big house childhood in 1930s Kilkenny, to college days at Cambridge in thrall to Carl Jung and Wilhelm Reich, to commando training and naval service protecting Allied convoys from U-boat attack during World War II. Then began his time from 1948 to 1952 as district officer in Tanganyika, where he learnt Swahili beneath the 'immense, unearthly bulk' of Kilimanjaro and was falsely imprisoned for ivory theft. He then moved to Canada to work at Macmillan publishers, co-founding The Tamarack Review and becoming managing editor of Saturday Night magazine from 1956 to 1967. During the seventies he was both columnist and books editor of the Toronto Star. He recounts his friendships with writers Brian Moore, Richard Wright and Mordecai Richler, and with Ronald Searle, Marshall McLuhan and Wilfred Thesiger, among others.
Here is a twenty-first century riposte to Lord Byron’s Don Juan. Casanova in Venice leads the reader on a fast-paced, deliriously raunchy journey in pursuit of that infamous lover and liar, Casanova. The rhythm gallops and the imagery bucks as Casanova grows out of innocence and into the daring, deceitful legend that has since become the subject of fascination, envy and art -- and Kildare Dobbs reveals every tantalizing detail in a meter that begs for recitation. Or rather, almost every detail. For the narrator of Casanova in Venice has a mind of his own and a decidedly modern agenda in this particular re-telling: from complaints about the excessive sanitation of women today, to opinions on the Big Bang Theory, the lively banter between narrator, audience and Casanova himself turns this mock-heroic epic into an equally thoughtful commentary on modern life. The narrative frame is based loosely on Casanova’s own Memoires and uses the same classical eighteenth-century poetic conventions that Casanova might have used, and so nymphs, gods, lyres and Muses all make the occasional appearance. Most sections are headed by a translated epigraph quoted from the Memoires and are written entirely in light-hearted rhyming couplets. Accompanied by Wesley Bates’ magical, irreverent illustrations throughout, the result is, finally, a worthy contribution to modern mythology: ‘Arthur, Cu, Scarface, move over, / make room for hero Casanova!’
With a masterful hand Kildare Dobbs returns to Rick's Cafe to explore the triumphs and crises of the human spirit embodied in the classic film Casablanca. All the original characters are here and in their desires we come to recognize our own time and selves.
Poet, travel writer, teacher, quiz-show presenter, broadcaster, adventurer - Kildare Dobbs has played many parts, met many people, and been many places. His life journey, marked by frequent diversions and detours, reflects the exuberant eclecticism of the man himself. In Kildare Dobbs: A Writer's Life, Dobbs takes us from a gas-lit big-house childhood in 1930s Tipperary, to college days at Cambridge, to commando training and naval service in the Second World War. After a stint as a colonial administrator in Tanganyika, he moved to Canada in 1952, where he became variously an editor at Macmillan, managing editor of Saturday Night magazine, and literary editor of the Toronto Star. This is a self-portrait of a fascinating man of letters driven by a hunger for adventure.
With a masterful hand Kildare Dobbs returns to Rick's Cafe to explore the triumphs and crises of the human spirit embodied in the classic film Casablanca. All the original characters are here and in their desires we come to recognize our own time and selves.
Here is a twenty-first century riposte to Lord Byron’s Don Juan. Casanova in Venice leads the reader on a fast-paced, deliriously raunchy journey in pursuit of that infamous lover and liar, Casanova. The rhythm gallops and the imagery bucks as Casanova grows out of innocence and into the daring, deceitful legend that has since become the subject of fascination, envy and art -- and Kildare Dobbs reveals every tantalizing detail in a meter that begs for recitation. Or rather, almost every detail. For the narrator of Casanova in Venice has a mind of his own and a decidedly modern agenda in this particular re-telling: from complaints about the excessive sanitation of women today, to opinions on the Big Bang Theory, the lively banter between narrator, audience and Casanova himself turns this mock-heroic epic into an equally thoughtful commentary on modern life. The narrative frame is based loosely on Casanova’s own Memoires and uses the same classical eighteenth-century poetic conventions that Casanova might have used, and so nymphs, gods, lyres and Muses all make the occasional appearance. Most sections are headed by a translated epigraph quoted from the Memoires and are written entirely in light-hearted rhyming couplets. Accompanied by Wesley Bates’ magical, irreverent illustrations throughout, the result is, finally, a worthy contribution to modern mythology: ‘Arthur, Cu, Scarface, move over, / make room for hero Casanova!’
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