This is a web site to introduce (and promote) my work to those who might have come across it before and those who might be encountering it for the first time. Everyone and their dog, and their dog’s fleas, now has to have a web site and this one is mine, according to the old mottos of “If I am not for me, who is for me; and if only I am for me, who am I? And if not now – when?”

The Louvish ouevre has been ongoing, in book form, since 1979, with a previous stint as documentary film maker commencing in 1970. The bare bones of the biography, as registered by the listings book “Contemporary Authors”, are as follows:

Born April 6, 1947, in Glasgow, Scotland; son of Misha (a translator) and Eva (a teacher; maiden name, Bersinski) Louvish;

Married Mairi Macdonald (television programmer & acquisition executive), October 12, 1979.

Education: Schools, Jerusalem, Israel, 1950-1965.
London School of Film Technique, 1968-1971.

Politics: “Left.” Religion: “No.”

ADDRESSES: Home--London, England. Agent--David Grossman, 118b Holland Park Ave., London W11 4UA, England, UK.

CAREER: Freelance documentary film producer and director, 1970-76; London International Film School, London, England, tutor and lecturer (part time), 1978 - - .

WRITINGS:
PUBLISHED FICTION

A Moment of Silence (autobiographical novel), Martin Brian & O’Keeffe
(London, England), 1979.

The Therapy of Avram Blok, Stein & Day, 1985.

The Death of Moishe-Ganef_, Heinemann (London, England), 1986.

City of Blok, Heinemann (London, England), 1988.

The Last Trump of Avram Blok, Heinemann (London, England), 1990.

Your Monkey’s Schmuck, Flamingo (London, England), 1990.

The Silencer, Bloomsbury (London, England), 1991, Interlink Books
(Brooklyn, NY), 1993.

Resurrections From the Dustbin of History, Bloomsbury (London, England),
1992, published as The Resurrections, Four Walls Eight Windows (New York,
NY), 1994.

What’s Up God?, Gollancz (London, England), 1995.

The Days of Miracles and Wonders, Somerville House, Toronto, Canada; Canongate, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1997; Interlink Books, USA, 1999.

The Cosmic Follies: ICA / BlokBooks, London, U.K., 2004

PUBLISHED NONFICTION

It’s A Gift (booklet) BFI Classics, 1994.

Man on the Flying Trapeze: The Life and Times of W. C. Fields, Faber & Faber, (London, England); Norton (New York, NY), 1997.

Monkey Business: The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers: Groucho,
Chico, Harpo, Zeppo With Added Gummo. Faber (London, England), 1999; Saint Martins Press, New York, 2000.

Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy--The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy, Faber & Faber (London, England), 2002; Saint Martins Press, New York, 2003.

Keystone: The Life and Clowns of Mack Sennett,
Faber & Faber, London, U.K. October 2003; Faber & Faber US February 2004.

Mae West: It Ain’t No Sin, Faber & Faber, London, 2005;
Saint Martins Press, New York, 2006

Cecil B. DeMille and the Golden Calf, Faber & Faber London, October, 2007
Cecil B. DeMille – A Life in Art (title change) Saint Martins Press, New York, 2008

Forthcoming: Mae West: It Ain't No Sin, to be published by Faber & Faber, London, U.K., fall/autumn 2005.

Works in Progress/ Unpublished:

City of Mirrors.
The Governors Show.
The Planet of Fuck
The Fundamental Blok, fifth novel in the Blok saga.

DESCRIPTION (from “Contemporary Authors”):

Simon Louvish has written several novels of political satire as well as biographies of famed film comedians W. C. Fields and the Marx Brothers. He once told CA (Contemporary Authors) that his books on the modern State of Israel “reflect an unpopular (non-Zionist) point of view, mostly by the medium of satire. I feel that the breach of closed minds by means of jokes, rather than bombs, might be a contribution towards the alleviation of those conflicts. Is this the usual writer’s delusion?”

To which the answer is probably: “Yes.” I have included in this site a selection of reviews/responses to each of the published books, and selected chapters (usually opening chapters) to give a flavour of the work. Those titles which are in print can be found by the links to Amazon sites (there are a variety of other book company sites which can be accessed, such as Barnes and Noble). I have not included chapter segments of the film biographies as these can be accessed on the Amazon sites (under their Peek-a-boo categories or whatever they are called).

Apart from amusing and/or informing readers about the published books this web site has been constructed in anticipation of the probable self-publication of a series of new titles, notably the current completed (or almost completed) volumes of two new fiction works: The Cosmic Follies and The Fundamental Blok. One or more of the somewhat shorter unpublished volumes, such as The Governors Show, a Film School satire written in the mid-1990's, might be made available on the web itself. Whether or not there is a demand of any kind for this kind of folly is of course an open question at this point. The first of the new works, The Cosmic Follies, may be printed in early 2004, and this site will be updated accordingly. As of the spring/summer of 2003, these titles are not yet available.

I have included a variety of links to often peripherally connected (or possibly unconnected) subjects, informational sites on Middle East, Israeli and Palestinian matters or more general sites, such as Washington's Georgetown University National Security site, a cornucopia of declassified and general data on burning issues. I have considered linking to esoteric, occult, lunatic, madcap sites, but these are so numerous the game seems not worth the candle - keying in the combination "Jerusalem" and "UFOs" can provide countless thousands of sitings (and sightings) to tax anyone's sanity, not to speak of adding "9/11" to the mix. The net is now so bountiful, so beyond control, that I can only suggest the merest tip of the iceberg of its almost endless connections. Einstein would never have been offline.

My fiction works have been engaged, since The Therapy of Avram Blok, written in the early 1980’s, in an attempt to scrape a little below the surface of these limitless connections which spin us into the web of our own barely visible threads to the universe, to worlds that appear both familiar and beyond our ken, to matters trivial and important, to all that came before us and made us what we are, or all the twists and turns we might take that influence our fate. My particular forte was the region of the Middle East, the State of Israel, its conflicts and its place in the 20th century, the muddy field from which my own upbringing dragged me out. Avram Blok was a suitable alter-ego, who shared some of my attributes while taking on others, and upon whom I could dump the sack of sorrows which he has had to carry now through five volumes. (The Days of Miracles and Wonders was the oblique volume 4). Two Israel-based thrillers, The Death of Moishe-Ganef and The Silencer, featured a disconnected hero, the journalist-critic Joe Dekel (“Israel’s only religious anarchist”) whom I have brought into connection with Blok in the work-in-progress The Fundamental Blok. Thus the work, in the main, folds itself into its own net of connections, although some of the other books lie outside this particular ball park.

As time has passed, and the nature of popularly published fiction has altered, from the “experimental” era of the 1960’s and `70’s, to the era of new-century “comfort” fiction, favouring entertainment over intellectual engagement, my own fiction has become more transgressive, not in the sense of being sensationalist but in a more formal way: The books got longer, more rather than less complex, more multi-layered and multi-plotted, less linear, less commercially exploitable and less in line with various sets of received views. While describing myself as “Left” for the American “Contemporary Authors”, I am not sure whether I am sure any more to which side of the spectrum I dress, as the collapse of empires and the growth of new ones blurs old distinctions and casts into the dustbin of history old certainties and categorizations. I do not feel any more confused about the world, or my feelings and beliefs about certain specific issues, such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or wars of invasion and occupation, than I have ever been. It is just that, as I suspect is the case with many, I do not wish, in the words of Groucho Marx, “to be a member of a club that would have me as a member.” In this sense, the books I have been writing about movie comedians and my fictions have become to some extent integrated: The examination of the masks and self-inventions that are common with stage and film actors, and particularly comedians, lead to a new way of looking at the many political maskings, subterfuges, lies and deceptions (including self-deceptions) that I was already writing about in the Avram Blok and Joe Dekel books.

We are beset by offerings to categorize ourselves and join the clubs of partisan or corporate identities: bombarded by “Your Choice” of television channels, artifacts, material goods or life-styles. Perhaps we should take the advice of Nancy Reagan: Just Say No.

On the other hand, we can’t stand aside from everything, and hope the general storms and typhoons pass us by and fail to uproot us from our own physical or mental soil. We are still capable of rational thought – if only just… Even religious orders are beset by the choice between rational and irrational positions, between the humane and the apocalyptic visions of our future.

And so I am not sure if I am living in the world of Avram Blok, or whether I have actually glimpsed a small part of the tear that seems to render humanity so incorrigible in the real mess of history and ongoing events. If there are readers out there who might enlighten me, and themselves, well and good. Just hold the tales of alien abduction, I think those belong elsewhere. A part of the truth may well be Out There, but much of it, I’m sure, remains within.

More later, as the merry dance continues.

All the best and enjoy.

S.L.
1

 

:: home :: fiction :: non-fiction :: films :: news :: :: unpublished :: links :: about :: contact :: sitemap ::