Guernica's
Cities Series is dedicated to writers and their relationship to their
environment. A street, a district, a city become the main characters in
these (non)fictionalized literary documentaries.
Bellecour
John Calabro
Cities Series
1-55071-216-0. $12 Canada - $10 USA. 2005
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Bellecour is about a man’s metaphysical return to a series of enigmatic sexual moments that occurred when he was nine years old in the Paris of 1963.
This journey blurs the physical lines between present and past, between Toronto and Paris, and ultimately between sexual awakening and sexual abuse.
About the Author - John Calabro
 |
John Calabro
has been teaching for Bellecour is his first work of fiction. |
Excerpt - Bellecour
I walk. Head hazy.
A murky pool of drunken, tripping, half-chewed, disconnected, left over
thoughts. The numb feeling at the back of my head persists and my now
scraped-empty stomach aches the aftermath
of convulsing.
Don’t stagger
as much anymore, swagger from side to side, I avoid hitting lampposts
and try to feel better. The darkness is blacker, soothing, befriending
me. I need to walk.
The dirty metallic
shutters reappear more often, almost on every second store, all of them
varying shades of grey.Orienting myself in this black and white neighbourhood
is difficult. Shutters, leaking rust, display
faded, barely legible names and logos hiding behind peeling paint. The
filth and desolation is more prevailing and maybe because of it, I hurt
less.The graffiti is bleak, hideous, mostly meaningless scribbles, grey
on white, smudges with rounded embossed contours. Illegible. Sometimes,
jagged-edged indecipherable lettering; all in all, a poor effort at rebellion.
Tossed garbage and broken glass, dark empty remnants of wine bottles,
strewn over an uncaring sidewalk. Imprints of rotting food, squashed by
heavy steps, smear the already soiled walkway; footprints acting as pointers.
It is an ugly route that I am following.
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