Description:
The Goldkorn Variations collects in one definitive volume, with a new afterword by the author, three previously published novels (originally from E.P. Dutton and Norton presses) about an aged European flautist, his music and his loves, from childhood to age one hundred and four. The author, Leslie Epstein, introduced Leib Goldkorn in his novella The Steinway Quintet which received the American Academy of Arts and Letters' award for Distinguished Achievement in Literature, later expanded as one of three tales collected in the first of these volumes, and which spawned what came to be known as Goldkorniana. The illustration by Pablo Picasso, "Scáene Erotique II 02-08-1962," 1962, appearing on the cover of The Goldkorn Variations courtesy of the Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), and the Pace Gallery, is one which the author, Leslie Epstein feels "particularly captures the undying energy of a man who never seems to grow old--in that sense, perhaps, Leib Goldkorn is like Picasso himself."
Brief description:
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (born October 25, 1881 in Málaga, Spain died April 08, 1973 in Mougins, France), often referred to simply as Picasso, was a Spanish School of Paris painter, sculptor, etcher, lithographer, ceramist and designer, whose influence on 20th century art is unparalleled. The full name recorded on his birth certificate and baptismal record, incorporating names of saints and family members, is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso. One of the most recognized figures in 20th century art, he is best known as the co-founder, along with Georges Braque, of cubism. The illustration by Pablo Picasso, "Scène Erotique II 02-08-1962," 1962, appears on the cover of THE GOLDKORN VARIATIONS courtesy of the Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), and the Pace Gallery.
Review Quotes:
"An expertly balanced mixture of hilarity and pain .... Like a German-accented Salman Rushdie, Epstein is at play among several vernaculars, gleefully scrambling cliches and strewing glittering bits of wry humor with abandon ... [Goldkorn] is surely one of the liveliest nonagenarians in fiction, detailing the decay of impoverished old age with a kind of ridiculous dignity."--San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle