HomeAbout John LobellMy PublicationsArt & ArchitecturePratt InstituteInterestsRecommended Links Contact

Interests

The Immoralist

André Gide
Year read: approximately 1959, my age, approximately 18

I think this was one of the books that Mr. Fields, my Creative Writing teacher in my senior year of high school, encouraged us to read. (Among the other books we were led to were Notes From the Underground and others by Dostoyevsky, stories by Turgenev, Maughan's Of Human Bondage, and Hesse's Steppenwolf.) The book is about a man who is doing well in life, but is unaware of his inner self and is acting automatically. During his honeymoon in Algeria, his inner self begins to awaken and assert itself, with destructive and liberating consequences. I have reread the book several times over the years.Gide said that it should be read along with Straight is the Gate for balance, but I did not get much about of Straight is the Gate. I did, however, like some of Gide's other books. Inspired by The Immoralist, my late wife, Mimi Lobell, and I contemplated traveling to Algeria and heading south into the desert by motorcycle. (I had motorcycled across Algeria, from West to East, in 1962 with friends.)

(back)