Greg
Greg was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Washington State (Spokane, Walla Walla, Bellingham, and Seattle). He's also lived in New York City and Vancouver, Canada. His main passions in life are books and the theatre. He holds an MFA in Theatre from the University of British Columbia. He is the co-founder and director of a small theatre company, Outsiders Inn aka Outside Sinners. Some of his favorite writers are: Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood, Sebastian Barry, Henning Mankell, and Kate Tempest.
Reviews & Recommendations
I am for more democracy. Van Reybrouck spells out why elections are—in fact and practice—anti-democratic, and identifies the malaise we are in as Democratic Fatigue Syndrome. He makes an absolutely compelling and convincing case for Sortition—the drawing of lots. This practice creates an opportunity for citizens to actively engage in deliberative democracy rather than continuing to support an "elected" aristocracy through elections. A sorely needed antidote to our corrupted, money-soaked, ineffectual system.
One the great contemporary American playwrights. You may know him for the many films he has appeared in. Night Thoughts is an incisive and moral examination of the "lucky" and the "unlucky".
Mankell is among my favorite writers. This melancholy novel captures the reality of aging, loss, mortality, and solitude, as well as our connection and distance from other people. A beautiful final novel from one of Scandanavia's finest writers.
A humorous autobiography—as you would expect—of the tallest Python's childhood to the inception of Monty Python. I loved this and look forward to the continuing story with a later volume.
If you have any illusions about how we are governed and by whom, Lofgren will do away with your illusions, pronto. This is an eternal struggle. A fight we must wage.
Atwood has written a brilliant parallel story to go along with Shakespeare's The Tempest. I loved this novel.
Kate Tempest is like a modern Homer or Virgil. She carries on the oral tradition of poetry. Like her previous poem Brand New Ancients, Let Them Eat Chaos begs to—and should—be read aloud. A favorite of mine.
Powys is an absolute original. Unclay is unlike any other novel I've read. I encourage you to visit the village of Dodder and come face to face with "Death," first name: John. One of my favourite novels.
As a teen I was an avid reader of Hesse's novels. Recently I came across Beneath the Wheel, which I had never read, and was immediately drawn into the story. Hans Giebenrath is a young man from a small German town who shows great promise as a scholar, yet there is something dreary and soul-deadening in his pursuit of an intellectual life at the expense of the spiritual--even though he is studying to become a pastor. All this just to please his father and the larger community. This is a novel about conformity and non-conformity, a book that captures Hans's inner life with lyricism and grace, and questions the values of the bourgeois life and the way it grinds Hans down. Hesse is a writer of great distinction. I look forward to revisiting more of his work.
This is your chance to have dinner with André. A wonderful anecdotal account of Gregory's life in the theatre and more. He had the good fortune to work with theatre luminaries like Helene Weigel and the Berliner Ensemble, Lee Strasberg, Grotowski, and for over forty years has collaborated with Wallace Shawn.
An inspiring book!
An absolutely enchanting overview of poetry starting with The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the present. Carey writes with real verve about both poets known and some perhaps forgotten. I recommend it for those both well-versed in poetry, as well as those who think they don't like poetry—how can that be? This book gave me great joy!
Robertson has written a stunning novel/narrative poem set mostly in old L.A. following WWII. It is the best contemporary novel I've read in a long time. The story unfolds through the eyes of a Canadian veteran who bears witness and experiences the aftershocks of the "good war" through the turmoil of the 1950s. I will return to this book again and again.
