Background
Norman Levine was born on October 22, 1923 in Minsk, Poland, but spent most of his adult life in England.
( Joseph Grand, the hero of From a Seaside Town, is a tra...)
Joseph Grand, the hero of From a Seaside Town, is a travel writer struggling to eke out an existence in an English seaside town. He introduces us to the small circle of relatives and companions who figure in his life. As he explores the sequence of events that led him to his present state of limbo, it becomes apparent that his crisis is not merely financial but also a crisis of personal identity. A Canadian Jew, Grand has spent a lifetime seeking to submerge his past. Now as a consequence, he discovers that he belongs nowhere. By turns comic and moving, this beautifully observed and beautifully written novel is a striking example of Norman Levine's artistry. From a Seaside Town has quietly become a classic. It is a book which simply will not go away.
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Norman Levine was born on October 22, 1923 in Minsk, Poland, but spent most of his adult life in England.
He is perhaps best remembered for his terse prose. "The leaner the language the more suggestive," he wrote in his 1993 essay, Sometimes lieutenant Works. His Jewish family had fled from Poland to Canada with the advent of anti-Semitism in the years prior to World World War World War II His adolescence was spent on the streets of Ottawa, but his coming of age was his time as a Lancaster bomber pilot for the Canadian division of the Royal Air Force.
He was based at Leeming.
Post-war he met an Englishwoman, Margaret, settled down and had three children. His writing, a reflection of his life, was also a direct influence on that life, as he had little money to keep up rent payments.
As a result his family often moved. He also lived in France before finally returning to England, where he died ten years later.
In 2002 he was presented with the Matt Cohen Prize (established in 2001 by the Writers" Trust of Canada to recognize a lifetime of work by a Canadian writer).
( Joseph Grand, the hero of From a Seaside Town, is a tra...)