A few summers ago, I found myself aimlessly wandering the streets of Montreal. I spent the day watching couples in Parc Lafontaine drink wine and smoke unfiltered cigarettes, French Canadian mothers unpack a lunch of Pepsi and moon pies for their children, and waiters specifically ignore the American patrons. As the day waned and the couples became drunker, I happened upon an obscure bookshop on Sherbrooke. And in this "eclectic" shop, I stumbled upon an unusually rare find: a great book.
Don't let the cover fool you; this is no politic-ridden manifest of punk-anarchist angst. Sandra Jeppesen's Kiss Painting (Toronto: Gutter Press), defies the constraints that anarchist literature usually bears. I know I know, I'm sick of their studded leather chaps and chains too... but, this book is about so much more. As reviewer, Sue McCluskey, put it: [Kiss Painting] is a tale of three friends; street kids, punk rock anarchist squatters, who meet, live together, move away and travel to the ends of the earth to find each other. It is a tale of loyalty and love, in which a ragtag tribe of society outcasts--or, rather, people who have rejected society--create a generous, compassionate community out of the squalor and chaos within and around them."
While Jeppesen's politics do show its neon-green head, it is with compassion for our lost humanity and a genuine want for community among people. Jeppesen utilizes stylistic choices akin to Mooly Bloom's Soliloquoy in Ulysses, creating with flowing prose-poetry, a cachophony of colors and sensations and thoughts. The language is so decandent it's almost edible; it reminds the reader just how beautiful the world can be.
It really is a shame that some brilliant authors, who push the conventions of the written word, can receive so little attention. Sandra Jeppesent is yet another one of those voices that drown in the deafening yells of the Dan Browns and Stephanie Meyers of our time. Kiss Painting has the opportunity to shift the paradigms of readers and I hope you give it the chance it deserves. I loved this book!
