Also by
Rolando Perez

The Electric Comedy

The Divine Duty of Servants


Other books by
Rolando Perez

Anarchy and Schizoanalysis
Publisher: Autonomedia

THE LINING OF OUR SOULS
Rolando Perez

ISBN: xx
Trade paper US: $x
Can x - x pages

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In 'the lining of our souls' Hopper’s characters come alive. Mr. Perez has the characters in the paintings talk directly to us about their lives and converse with each other late into the night. What Mr. Perez’s work offers the reader is a key into each one of the very specific worlds depicted in the 21 selected paintings. Additionally, one should add that the Cuban-born, Rolando Perez (whose work has been selected for inclusion in The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature; Norton, 2002) has written a book that transcends the traditional, stringent margins of ethnic literature, and respectfully collapsed the Cuban into the American, with an original vision of Americana.


“Perez’s responses to Hopper ring true. Admirers of Hopper cannot help but find Perez a  sympathetic voice.”

— Gail Levin from the foreword

“Exemplary prose works generated by paintings of Edward Hopper.  Highly recommended.”    

—The Poetry Project Newsletter

“Dostoyevsky meets Edward Hopper in the spare and unsparing prose of this remarkable volume of stories.  Writing with verve and intelligence, Rolando Pérez goes deep in search of the ‘lining of our souls.’  What he finds is not pretty but it’s true.  A powerful and disturbing performance by one  of our most gifted Latino writers.” 

 — Gustavo Pérez-Firmat


EXCERPTS

Summer in the City

Surrounded by high-rise buildings and questionable blue skies, the early morning light offers little guidance. Ombra, solo ombra. The aftermath of another seismic eruption, followed by another oasis. Triste apres l'amour. That moment when one feels that the core of one's being has been scraped, as with sandpaper, and there is nothing left to scrape. Because there is no bottom left.

All the accusations, finger pointing, and allusions to the things one has done, has not done, done too much, or too little of. His sharp, serrated remarks aimed directly at her knowledge. "Do you know anything at all?" Followed by the bitter stings of jealousy: a stranger's voice on the phone, a call made too late in the day to be convincing, the long blonde hair on the scarf, a thin red mark on the inside of a collar: the fault line of someone's lipstick, and so it goes....on and on.  These worlds that never meet—or meet only by chance—are chased away by a blonde, green-eyed monster who continues to rear its ugly head.

Sitting pensively at the edge of the bed, she wonders why she bothers with a man she cannot trust, a man that gives her nothing. To a nothingness, she continuously returns.

And he, lying naked, face down, buries his head in the pillow, wishing that he could end all of this—for her and for himself. He wishes that he did not exist, that he had taken different exits—or at least, that life would be a little easier—without all this pain, that never seems to end.

If one could arrive at truth through Reason! the philosopher reflects. But all he can hear is the screaming of her silence, with her back turned to him. Oh...if only he could scream...! (So much rage inside of him, only the Heimlich maneuver will save him). A sad, unbridgeable gap of two worlds spinning on two completely different axes. She, the excluded, and he the exiled—never part of anything. The meaning of Liebestod: two people who truly love each other: irreconcilably alone.

Cuban born, Rolando Perez, is the author of numerous books on a variety of subjects ranging from philosophy and literary criticism to poetry and drama. Some of his published titles include On An(Archy) and Schizoanalysis,  Severo Sarduy and the Religion of the Text, The Lining of Our Souls (based on selected paintings of Edward Hopper. Cool Grove) and The Electric Comedy (Cool Grove). He has also written over 15 plays that have received production in NYC.
 Mr. Perez has a B.A. in philosophy from Trenton State College, an M.A. in philosophy, an M.A. in Spanish (both from Stony Brook), and a Masters in Library Science from Rutgers University. He is a librarian and the Spanish/French bibliographer at Hunter College.