I recently attempted to read "Solomon Gursky Was Here," a novel by Mordecai Richler. I've read and enjoyed a few books by Richler, but I thought this one was nothing but nonsensical babble - I mean, really bad, dull and verbose in the extreme. This review sums it up.
I feel compelled to finish a book once I've started it, but in recent years I've decided there are far too many good books out there for me to waste time plodding through bad ones. As for this book, I didn't want to pass it along to another unsuspecting reader, and my life-long love of books wouldn't allow me to throw it into the trash, so I decided to recycle it in my own special way. Feeling like a bit of a devil, I began tearing pages out of the book - and I must admit the more I tore, the more I enjoyed it!
I've done some painting over collage elements before and felt pleased with the effect, so I used a mixture of water and acrylic medium to adhere bits from the torn pages onto a wooden cradle panel and began painting. I've created four works so far incorporating pages from the book and have several other Richler-collage substrates awaiting. Best of all, I sold one of these works just a few days after I'd finished it and two others are hanging in the Watershed Art Gallery!
