Ever since everyone's favorite apocryphal diva (with the
possible minority exception
of Lena Geyer), the oracular Oltrano herself,
Marwdew Czgowchwz, vanished across the ocean at a time (time out of mind) that was somehow
both 1956 and 1975 and yet
neither, La Cieca, like all the rest of you, has reread her first copy of
James McCourt's novel to tatters, purchased the sempiternally-awaited
reissue, and wondered, wondered... well, after all, what's
left for her?
Cher public, we're about to find out. This month,
Turtle Point Press releases
Now Voyagers: Some Divisions of the Saga of Mawrdew Czgowchwz, Oltrano, Authenticated by Persons Represented Therein, Book One: The Night Sea Journey. This flamboyant followup tells the story of the charged atmosphere surrounding the legendary diva (and possible CIA agent) turned psychoanalyst. According to
Publishers Weekly, the novel
resurrects the literary, musical and gay scene of 1950s New York. About half relates to Czgowchwz's 1956 trip across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary with her consort, Jacob Beltane, to Ireland, where she is to star in Pilgrim Soul, a Douglas Sirk–like movie about the Irish revolt of 1916. Much of the rest relates to the Gotham-centered peregrinations of Mawrdew's friend, the gay poet S.D.J. Fitzjames O'Maurigan .... The most stylistically astonishing chapters are intermezzos of conversation caught on the wing at Everard's Bath house, the book's pre-Stonewall place to meet and greet in gay New York.
This fall's must-read is now on sale at
Amazon.com.