Adam and Leonora: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Adam Sinclair is a reclusive surrealist painter, in search of his muse and obsessed with his visions, who lives in a vast artists compound in the Santa Cruz mountains. Leonora Bloom is an artist and scientist who isnt sure why she is so drawn to a man shes never met yet cant shake her obsession with him. After years of hiking the ridge above Adams property, she finally knocks on his door.

Inside Adams house, enormous paintings of golden spirals, cosmic stars, and cobalt universes cover the walls, vibrating with energy and mysteryand though he is aloof, the chemistry between him and Leonora is immediate. When the younger woman catches a glimpse of an old black-and-white photograph of his deceased wife, Pauline, who could be her twin, she begins to understand why.

Interwoven with Leonoras tale are the voices of modern-day Don Quixote Adams muses: Pauline, a talented writer who lives in both 1940s New York City and Mexico; and Mimi Saucier, a sultry singer from 1930s Paris. The two women play off characters of the Surrealist movement including Andr Breton, Remedios Varo, and Wolfgang Paalen, creating worlds of dreamy enchantment. Filled with intrigue and tension, secrets and admissions, and the colorful imagery of a painters mind, Adam and Leonora explores Leonoras quest to discover Adams secret to the creative pulse of lifea journey into the surreal.

Reviews

"Carol Jameson has a rare talent for delight. In reanimating past artists, poets, and lovers, she snares them in a Midsummer Night's Dream of pure storytelling intoxication. Even her Andr Breton is halfway loveable!"
--Jonathan Lethem, New York Times best-selling author of Motherless Brooklyn and The Fortress of Solitude

"Jameson has written a wonderful novel, layered with romantic escapades and philosophical musings on Art and Life. She deftly handles different places and historical time periods from Paris on the cusp of war, to New York, Mexico, and Los Angeles. Adam is the archetypal male artist, a modern Don Quixote in search of the Ideal, while Andr Breton, as Sancho Panza, offers counsel that fluctuates between brilliance and buffoonery. The women--Pauline, Mimi, and Leonora--are visionary artists in their own right. Adam and Leonora is executed in a fluid literary style reminiscent of the great studies of human folly."
--Summer Brenner, author of The Missing Lover

Author Bio

Carol Jameson is an educator, swimmer, and pianist. She created and coedited the online zine Hello Goodbye Apocalyse, a journal of pandemic writings and artwork, and is the author of The Kaiser Stories and It Builds in the Brain. Currently, she writes two blogs: Pool Purrs, a collection of swimming stories, and Walk with CJ, a collection of walking stories that began during the pandemic. She has an MFA in creative writing and literature from Mills College and teaches writing in San Francisco Bay Area colleges. She lives in Richmond, California, with her naughty orange tabby cat, Clara.