Frederic Tuten
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frederic Tuten is an American novelist whose works are characterized by a highly ingenious and lyrical prose style, which at times is reminiscent of a bygone era. He has written five novels: The Adventures of Mao on the Long March (1972), Tallien: A Brief Romance (1988), Tintin in the New World: A Romance (1993), Van Gogh's Bad Cafe (1997) and The Green Hour (2002).
Born in the Bronx, Tuten is the son of a Sicilian mother and a French-Huguenot father. His father left their family when Tuten was young, and though they were never close, his father eventually was a part of Tuten's life before his death. Tuten has been married once.
Tuten spent most of his life heading the writing program at the City College of New York. In that capacity, he championed the work of students Walter Mosley, Oscar Hijuelos, and many others. He is on the board of advisors for Guernica Magazine.
Tuten currently resides in New York City's East Village.
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[edit] The Adventures of Mao on the Long March
Tuten's first novel, a fictionalized account of Chairman Mao's rise to power, is highly experimental in nature. It contains Faulkneresque changes in narrative and lengthy fictional conversations with Mao that read like journalistic interviews. The font of the book intentionally resembles that of an informational pamphlet. The story first appeared in 1969 in a 39 page condensed form in the magazine Artist Slain. The novel in its entirety was subsequently published by Citadel Press, and rereleased in 2005 by New Directions.
The cover of Mao features original artwork by painter Roy Lichtenstein, Tuten's best friend until his death in 1997. It is a bold, smiling depiction of Mao, rendered in Lichtenstein's trademark benday dot style. This is perhaps fitting for The Adventures of Mao, and Tuten's subsequent novels as well, as artistic criticism (particularly with regard to painting) is a unifying theme in much of his work. Tuten himself was actually used as a model for the drawing, which Lichtenstein altered accordingly to resemble Mao.
[edit] Tallien: A Brief Romance
His next book, Tallien, is also an interpretive examination of an historical figure, though one not nearly as well known as Mao. Jean Lambert Tallien was a high ranking figure in the French Revolution, serving as the preseident of the Constitutional Convention and a member of the Committee of Public Safety. Like Mao, Tallien was a member of the common classes who rose to the upper crust of the revolutionary ranks.
Tuten tells the story of Tallien's courtship and marriage to Therese, a condemned member of the Spanish aristocracy. When eyebrows are raised by Tallien's show of clemency, Tuten describes in minute organizational detail the sometimes banal and sometimes bloody bureaucratic struggle that ensues. The narrative is intercut with the author's account of his own father's life, demonstrating an illiquid literary mechanism similar to that used in The Adventures of Mao.
[edit] Tintin in the New World: A Romance
Tintin in the New World is perhaps Tuten's best known and most critically acclaimed work. The novel's unlikely protagonist is Tintin, the cartoon boy detective created by Belgian comic artist Georges Remi (better known as Hergé). Tuten transplants Tintin from his comic book confines into a fleshed out, realistic world with all its wicked, grave and abstruse trappings. The cover of the novel, like The Adventures of Mao, features a specially commissioned painting by Roy Lichtenstein. Again Lichtenstein makes use of the benday dot technique to depict Tintin and his dog Snowy in a near-miss with a would-be assassin's knife. Behind Tintin hangs the painting Dance (I) by Henri Matisse, which in reality is displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Curiously, Roy Lichtenstein's own rendering of Dance, sans Tintin, hangs in the same museum.
The book went through several print runs, both in the USA and the UK (in Britain, the novel was published by Marion Boyars, and later Minerva). The novel was also translated into French, German and Dutch. In 2005, it was re-released by Black Classics Press in the USA, with an introduction by Paul LaFarge. All editions of the book feature the Tintin Sitting jacket illustration created by Roy Lichtenstein.
Though Tintin in the New World was received well by critics, some fans of the original Tintin comic were disappointed and, at worst, outraged; they did not consider it to be canonical. There was sometimes an expectation that the book would simply pick up where Hergé had left off, and that the direction taken by Tuten had sullied Tintin's image. Other Tintin fans however, enjoyed the book, and viewed it not as an extension of Hergé's books, but a different representation of Tintin entirely. The cover was also considered a triumph by many fans of Hergé's artwork.
Appreciation of the book is enhanced by an acquaintance with Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain, whose characters it uses.
[edit] Van Gogh's Bad Cafe
Like Mao and Tallien, Tuten's next novel, Van Gogh's Bad Cafe, offers an imagined glimpse into the psyche of a historical character. The book is also similar to Mao in that the time and place of action and the narrator are inconsistent throughout and change without warning. Van Gogh's Bad Cafe explores the issues of depression and insanity.
[edit] The Green Hour
Tuten's most recent novel, The Green Hour, is in many ways a departure from the others. The setting is present day, and the characters are not borrowed from history. Further, it lacks much of the impertinent humor and ethereal feel of his previous works. The story recounts the 30 year love affair of two starkly different academics.
[edit] Trivia
- All of Frederic Tuten's novels feature a cat named Nicolino.
- Frederic Tuten is a close friend of actor/comedian Steve Martin.
