Novels

Four Novels

I.El Pessebre

Symphonic Variations around the themes of music and politics

The novel, which I've been picking up and abandoning since 1978, brings together diverse subjects such as classical versus contemporary music, music and political ideologies, Puerto Rican nationalism, the musical world of Philadelphia, , the influence of Pablo Casals on all these things , festivals at Marlboro, San Juan and Perpignan, France, the psychology of a terrorist,etc.
If there is a Volume I, there should be a Volume II ! Yet, although I've traveled all over the place for 30 years collecting background material for the events of Volume II (see Puerto Rico:Music, Tourism and Politics the relevance of this novel to my own current activities is perhaps as distant as my past violin playing . There is a strong impetus to finish it; however there is the possibility that it will remain a torso among my Opera Omnia.

El Pessebre (.doc format)

II.Hysteria and Enlightenment

Mesmer, Mozart and Marie-Therese von Paradis

The central narrative of this documentary/novel is about the partial cure, in the 1770's, of the hysterical blindness of 17-year old piano prodigy, Marie-Therese von Paradis, by Franz Anton Mesmer. The author illustrates this tragic and beautiful story, often retold, by a rich store of insights into topics such as the structure of perception; the distinction between sight and vision; the learning process; the relationship of musical ability to neurology and mental illness ; the medical revolution of the 18th century;the Industrial Revolution; the physician's dual persona as scientist and charismatic healer; psychiatric practice, then and now; and others.

Hysteria and Enlightenment

III. Harvest of Chains

A novel of conventional format. Its setting is the world of painters and sculptors in Dublin, Ireland, circa 1970.
A philosophical narrative around the issues of art, integrity and respectability.
This picture, sedate and wild in turns, owes as much (probably even more) to the life-long influence of the great Irish writers such as Joyce, Yeats, Synge, O'Flaherty and others, as it does to my 7-month sojourn in Dublin, August 1970-February 1971.
Most resemblances to persons, living or dead, are no doubt intentional. All resemblances to events come with a low probability. As for places, it's pot-luck.
The links to each chapter of Harvest of Chains (.doc format) are compiled at

Table of Contents
Harvest of Chains (.doc format)
Harvest of Chains(.pdf format)

IV. The Eiffel Tower Gang

The Eiffel Tower Gang was written during a year's sojourn in Paris, 1988-89. Along with being an (admiring) satire on Georges Simenon's detective Maigret, it gives the reader a grand tour of the great city of Paris by setting its action in a dozen key neighborhoods.
The headquarters of the Eiffel Tower Gang are in Taiwan, where a factory operates around the clock manufacturing contraband miniature Eiffel Tower souvenirs. This has all but destroyed the tourist trade in these items. At the same time, contraband monosodium glutamate is manufactured in a clandestine factory in Vichy which is smuggled back into Taiwan and China.
Stopping the Gang's activities becomes a matter of national honor, and the world-renowned Chief Inspector Guy de Migraine of the DST (The French FBI) is given the job.
What follows is unadulterated farce, played out in cafes, restaurants, dives, Metro stations, train stations, embassies, cinemas and the headquarters of the DST, the DSGE, and other subdivisions of the French police.

Table of Contents
The Eiffel Tower Gang (.doc format)
The Eiffel Tower Gang (.pdf format)

V. Getting That Meal Ticket

A Saga of College Life

Getting That Meal Ticket (.doc format)
Table of Contents and .pdf format

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