AUTHOR'S NOTE

       This is a work in progress and not yet available for sale. 

       Volume One (which covers the first thirty years of my life) is finished and exists in print as an author's proof. I've decided not to release it for publication until I've completed Volume Two (on the last thirty years of my life). 

       However, I will release advance copies on request. These cost $12 and have a "Not for Resale" banner across the cover. Email me at visionnaire@lcaruana.com if you are interested. 

REFLECTIONS IN THE MIRRORED SPHERE

THE UNLIKELY YET EPIC LIFE OF ALPHONSE PINSELSTRICH

(And its Startling Resemblance to My Own...)

L. CARUANA

       Something strange has happened to Alphonse Pinselstrich…

       Alone in his library, he begins to have the sneaking suspicion he is no longer among the world of the living. Time unwinds in strange and unpredictable ways; space unfolds erratically. The only source of stability in his ever-changing afterlife is the mirrorball hanging from the ceiling... 

Has he been murdered? 

                    What were his last moments?

REFLECTIONS IN THE MIRRORED SPHERE

       Follow Alphonse as he learns to navigate the netherworld in the company of his long-deceased cat. As the erudite Pinselstrich (artist, writer and lecturer) attempts to reconstruct his own life-story, he comes across a curious volume ~ written thirty years into the future, where the post-humous Pinselmeister is hailed as a visionary, a bold but tragically-misunderstood peintre maudit who has initiated an entirely new movement in art, and even re-discovered ‘the Secret of Painting.’ Yet, the curmudgeon’s quirky personality also becomes the source-code for this century’s first bionic despot – the dreaded Cyborg Messiah.

       ...Is it a novel? Or perhaps, an artist’s biography, thinly-disguised as a sci-fi murder mystery? Well, not an autobiographical novel, but rather, a novelistic treatment of the author’s own life, seen through the eyes of Alphonse Pinselstrich.

       Deliberately irreverent, philosophical yet funny, this whimsical tale of the Art Life is loaded with narrative oddities and linguistic sleights of hand, leading the reader ever-deeper into a labyrinthine quest for self-understanding. 

       From Toronto, with his childhood time travels and elaborate world building, to near-insanity during his Philosophy studies, and on to his Stage experience, European travels and deluded love for Annabelle la belle maudite, this chronicle of the Art Life delves into dreams, ideals & awakening, culminating in a transformative year in Vienna and a final departure for Europe to become a painter.

       Delightfully inventive, at times even ludicrous, this artist’s tale offers amusing yet astute observations on life, love... and the Lost Art of Painting.