{"title":"Jeff Senatra","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"in-the-rafters-of-paris-book-jeff-senatra-9780998506449","title":"In The Rafters Of Paris","description":"In a state of profound personal crisis, a struggling American writer travels to Paris from San Francisco with just one salvaging hope: to find his words again. Emotionally unraveling in a tiny Latin Quarter apartment he's nicknamed the rafters, Roman Parish begins writing his story-writing to save his life. Over the course of three weeks, he pours himself into six notebooks, detailing his time in Paris and the shattering heartbreak that followed him there, then abandons them and seemingly disappears. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRoman's recount is the body and soul of \u003ci\u003eRafters\u003c\/i\u003e, but the book begins with a preface conveying the story of the book itself. Attributed to Richard Fields, a San Francisco Bay Area man and proprietor of the Paris apartment, the preface explains that what we are about to read comes from the recovered notebooks which had come under his charge, describing how the abandoned work reached its present form and Fields' role in the process. The main narrative then begins, disjointed and tentative at first befitting Roman's frame of mind, but soon finds its rhythm as the story gradually unfolds. Nonlinear in structure, the narrative moves in two directions at once-backward through the past toward the foreseeable climax, while moving in the present through the climax's aftermath. Swinging back and forth from San Francisco to Paris and backward and forward in time, Roman's Paris experiences are interwoven with the greater story of his pain. At times, moments and scenes are repeated or echoed, the story seeming to spiral and swoop on itself, and the reader's first impression may be one of redundancy. But in fact, this is a major theme of the book's overall expression, and representative of Roman's mental state. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTwo former lovers are at the heart of it all, both nameless throughout the book (referred to only as her or she), and in the end fuse into one profound leveling force. The relationships are five years apart, and although the loss of the first was the initial blow that sent Roman reeling, it is the second, most recent relationship that has brought Roman to an existential teeter, and which the book follows in entirety. In retrospective flashes we see the story evolve over the course of a year from its euphoric origins through to its slowly degenerating, yet abrupt collapse. In the latter part of the book another loss is revealed that proves an exacerbating, if not equal torment. This element of the story compounds Roman's haunting and resurfaces after the climax in a scene that takes place within Notre Dame Cathedral (a recurring symbol throughout the story), which then leads to the book's final image of surrender and release. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIntertwined with Roman's past tale is the record of his present trip, and the characters he interacts with while in Paris. Paris itself is presented as a kind of character here and is central to the story. Having played a role in the history of both relationships, the city is like an interfering lover to whom Roman impetuously returns when his world crashes down around him. The most important human character he meets while in Paris, however, is Matice, a recent transplant from Turkey. Her name is the very first word of the main narrative, but she does not reappear until the second half of the book. Matice helps Roman both survive his trip and assess his past while lightening the story and propelling it forward. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThough romantic in nature, \u003ci\u003eIn\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003ethe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eRafters\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eof\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eParis\u003c\/i\u003e is no romance novel. It aspires to serious, literary effort that blurs genres-part fiction, part memoir, part travelogue. It attempts to explore truth and what it means to love, and the folly and misinterpretations of best intentions failed. Beyond these efforts, however, \u003ci\u003eRafters\u003c\/i\u003e' deeper expression is that of PTSD-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Ultimately and foremost, it is a record of this ravaging affliction.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52101298913553,"sku":"CIN0998506443VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780998506449.jpg?v=1757092725"},{"product_id":"meat-tooth-book-jeff-senatra-9780998506456","title":"Meat Tooth","description":"It's the early 1990s in San Francisco, just before the first tech boom, and Blu Moor, a recent transplant to the city, has come in pursuit of artistic dreams. Written in a lyrical, semi-stream-of-consciousness style that often verges more on prose poetry than straight ahead fiction, Meat Tooth is an internal love letter addressed to the girl Blu left behind and an ode to the city that has captured his heart. We follow Blu through San Francisco haunts as he records his thoughts and impressions, a young writer on the prowl hungry for any experience that will transmute into the wealth of words. Here's a snapshot of San Francisco that no longer exists. The bohemianism that once reigned during this era, long since faded, is resurrected along with some of the characters that once colored the city, particularly the Mission district. This neighborhood is featured predominantly in Meat Tooth, and one bar in particular there is central to much of the action. Bypassing traditional plot and chapter structure, the book's narrative threads together a series of vignettes which, collectively, are meant to form an overall impression rather than tell a linear story. Blu seeks to share his environment through camera-like observations, equally detached from his surroundings while simultaneously interacting with them, as if to telepathically beam them back to his lost love. These observations and experiences, intermingling with memories and personal sentiments, are directed specifically to her, namelessly referred to throughout the book as simply you, and the reader is left with the voyeuristic sensation of intercepting these very intimate and immediate messages. On the surface Meat Tooth is a gritty, urban snarl from a wounded barroom poet, but at its tender core, among its explorations of love and sex and dark meditations on life's underlying truths, it is a document of one struggling to accept his own choices and personal fate, and learning to let go.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53186131198225,"sku":"NIN9780998506456","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780998506456.jpg?v=1772375976"},{"product_id":"of-men-and-monsters-book-jeff-senatra-9780998506463","title":"Of Men And Monsters","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53379557949713,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53379558736145,"sku":"NIN9780998506463","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780998506463.jpg?v=1775477597"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-jeff-senatra.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}