The Jailbird’s Song

Description

Peter Thompson

The Jailbird’s Song

ISBN: 978-1-956921-44-1 (pbk.)

(January 2025) 

In this climax of the quintet (with Bughouse Blues, Winter Light, Harrison’s Word, Rhodes to Morocco) Rhodes, former teacher, veers between heroism and bewilderment, his moments of idealism offset by an almost childish inability to accept the world’s shortcomings, finally outdoing himself and landing in a Marseille prison. His efforts to set the world right have alerted the dark forces, and he must duel with an interrogator who makes Inspector Javert look like a Cub Scout.

Rhodes To Morocco is an escapist canticle to Morocco, its souks, its food, even its drinks, a tale of rich desolation and gathering paranoia, shot through with verbal wit and a translator’s love of language.

—Alexis Levitin, translator of Eugenio Andrade’s Forbidden Words

Of Harrison’s Word: Peter Thompson’s work is always assured and can take a reader from the profane to the sublime. It’s provocative and poetic, and funny and sometimes discomfiting. In his man Harrison Rhodes, Thompson explores ego, uncertainty and hope in someone who, like the rest of us, struggles with all of those.

—Ted Delaney, author of Broken Irish

Winter Light is an action-packed romp as the Latin teacher Rhodes maneuvers the absurd banalities and long winter of a New England Prep School. Thompson’s writing is fresh and irreverent, keenly intelligent with flourishes of light and music.

—Sonja Livingston, author of Ghostbread

In Bughouse Blues the reader gets a real sense of what these places [mental hospitals] are like from the insider’s view. At times scathing, Hunter Thompsonesque, at times deeply empathetic—the hero’s description of those in his care gives the reader a close-up look at the complexity of this kind of care, and the need for well-trained, well-compensated professional staff and 21st century facilities.

—Dr. June Speakman, State Representative, Rhode Island General Assembly 

Peter Thompson’s publications include thirty books of poetry, fiction (and translations of both), songbooks and two anthologies of French literature. His major translating effort has been six works by the great Algerian author Nabile Farès, including his novel trilogy, Discovery of The New World. Thompson is a literature professor at Roger Williams University and edits Ezra: An Online Journal of Translation. He also worked for many years in mental hospitals in three states. This tale of his character, Harrison Rhodes, continues from the novels Winter Light, Harrison’s Word and Rhodes to Morocco to end the quintet with the present volume. Information on books at peterthompsonbooks.com.