Cleo, Hiag Akmakjian
In this raunchy memoir, a young American veteran, using the GI Bill to attend an art school in Montparnasse, returns to post-World War II Paris where he meets Cleo.
She is a 19-year-old virginal American studying abroad who, along with a group of café friends and a comic overweight middle-aged Parisian prostitute, hopes to explore love, philosophy, sex and early movies in the easygoing ways of Left Bank Paris. It is an unusual kind of novel: a graphic love story (quite graphic at times) while remaining a fun read. However, it is not really a novel, but a memoir that the author claimed was 100% true other than her name was not actually Cleo . . . NOTE: Adult themes and language. |
(114 pages) |
Name Dropping: The Cedar Bar in the 1950s, Hiag Akmakjian
This short book is a first-person account of the famous New York City Cedar Bar in the 1950s when it was regularly visited by what came to be known as the "greatest generation in American art history." The author was friends with Willem DeKooning, Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko, Philip Guston and Franz Kline.
In this short book he describes what these giants of the American art world were really like when they relaxed among friends in their favorite neighborhood hangout. You'll also see how they viewed art criticism as nothing more than profound twaddle -- but appreciated nonetheless for being impressively complimentary, whatever the hell it meant. An impressionistic view of a time and place that no longer exists. You won't view these artists the same way again, but every word is true. Also includes a short story by the author: “I Love You and Isn’t That What Counts?” |
(50 pages) |
