Rob Couteau
Letters from Paris.
Dominantstar, 2010. First printing. Edited with a preface by Amanda Levin, Deborah May & Spencer Seidman. 9780980188035  410 pages.
Softcover volume, measuring approximately 5.75" x 8.75", is new. 
""Letters from Paris" begins with Couteau's journey to the city of his distant ancestors. There, he lived a dream: to successfully expatriate to Europe. Taxed by his work as a counselor for Manhattan's homeless mentally ill, and alienated by the materialism of the "go-go" 1980s, he yearned not only for escape but also for creative rebirth. Determined to pursue his literary and artistic endeavors in a more "antique" setting, he relocated to Paris on December 2, 1988.
In the tradition of George Orwell's "Down and Out in Paris and London" and of Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer", and with only a few French words and even fewer francs in his pocket, he led a precarious life of subsistence. Indeed, the Paris of the 1990s was far more expensive than that of previous decades.
Despite this marginal existence, he mantained an emotionally rich, creative life. Most importantly, he mastered his literary craft and eventually began to paint again. After a dozen years abroad he returned to the States, satisfied that his "rebirth" was now complete.
The first part of this volume includes journal entries, mostly from the early years. This is followed by "Letters to Luke": a surreal pastiche of his initial euphoria in the City of Light and his colorful memories of a Brooklyn childhood..
In this and subsequent voluems of the epistolary memoir, we have a chronicle that is earthy and Rabelaisian as well as reflective and philosophical. It includes portraits of an often bizarre "mentalite francaise"; the expatriate's struggle to master his creative form; and contemplations on art, literature, and culture. Meditations on spirituality and mysticism alternate with erotic cameos rendered in a droll, sophisticated yet vaudevillian manner." (Preface)