Customer Reviews

Waiting for Gertrude: A Graveyard Gothic

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Alice B. Tolkas was born in San Francisco. She eventually left the States to live with her love Gertrude Stein in Paris. Over twenty years after Gertrude died, Alice, who mourned her loss all that time, finally joins her beloved. Both are buried in the renowned Paris Pere-Lachaise Cemetery.

However, Alice fails to catch up to Gertrude wherever she is. Instead she learns why the cemetery seems to be a haven for stray cats when she is reincarnated as a feline. She soon realizes that other famous souls buried here have been reborn as cats, but alas none are her beloved Gertrude, the only person to light her fire. All she does is pass time, eats the food brought by Ondine the Spay queen, and avoids the sorcery of some of her spookier peers. For Alice is WAITING FOR GERTRUDE to join feline heaven.

Fans who appreciate a novel that is extremely weird but humorous and satirical will enjoy the odd WAITING FOR GERTRUDE. The two paragraphs above concentrate on the title player for review convenience (moi that is). However, there are several other subplots involving famous deceased that readers will be Wilde about lighting a funeral pyre and pitying poor Abelard, etc. The story line never takes itself seriously yet paints a strong message about positive relationships are important while long term quarrels, spats and everything ugly in life is a waste of time. Part romance, part fantasy, and part satire, the Monty Python crowd will be perfect for this insane look at the afterlife.

Harriet Klausner

I picked up this book after having visited the graveyards of Paris and falling in love with the artful serenity they exude.

At times witty, charming and even historical this little story takes a visit to a French graveyard into a whole other world. Famous people who reside in death at the Pere-Lachaise Cimetiere in Paris are finding theselves reincarnated into stray cats. Bill Richardson is loyal to the original historical figures and allows all their known eccentricities to remain alive within the cats. Alice B. Tolkas pines away for the return of her beloved Gertrude Stein, Jim Morrison is a swaggering sexy tomcat, Fontaine describes the cats with great poetic harmonies, Oscar Wilde falls in love with Morrison, Isadora Duncan still dances in the moonlight with ribbons, Colette still exudes desire, Maria Callas is still quite the diva, Sarah Bernhardt the consummate actress, and Proust becomes a reculsive private eye, just to name a few.

I rated this book with only 3 stars because it is a bit complex to read. The style is chaotic, bouncing around from letter, to narration, to poetry and more letters. The writing is littered with uncommon words that leave you feeling ignorant if you don't take the time to look them up. The characters are complex, of course they should be, and halfway through the book I stopped to refresh my memory on who was who before continuing on. I recommend a quickie refresher course on interesting French figures before beginning to read this story only because it allows you to grasp all the subtle nuances as you go along. All in all a GREAT idea had it been toned down to the masses but a superb book for literary snobs and the French aficionado. My favorite conversation in the book is between Oscar Wilde and Alice B. Tolkas (as cats), "Never disparage a surface. Nothing recommends beauty more than superficiality. Real beauty walks through the world uncluttered and unmasked. It dosen't hide in the earth like a truffle, attendant on the tender mercies of a passing pig." Bravo, Bill Richardson for awakening the dead!!

If you love cats, and you love France, and you have an extremely peculiar sense of humor and an appreciation for the absurd, I think you'll love this book. You may even adore it.

Waiting for Gertrude is set in Paris' gargantuan Pere Lachaise cemetery, where the souls of some of the notables buried therein have returned to Earth (translated, to use their term) as cats. A befurred Alice B. Toklas (the book's narrator) is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for her dear Gertrude Stein to reincarnate (translate) while Oscar Wilde pines and whines and preens hoping to attract the affection of his beloved Jim Morrison ("Jamz"), a ferocious, kitten-devouring three-testicled tomcat. All the while, quadriped versions of Isadora Duncan and Edith Piaf are making all kinds of merry hell for the other feline residents of the cemetery who include:

Jean de la Fontaine, the French fabulist returned now as a second-rate tour guide who insists on delivering his lectures in iambic pentameter, and whose poems introduce the various characters and situations;

Modigliani - then as now, a great painter;

Rossini - an aged and quite senile cat who cannot remember he was once a composer;

Collette - a high-class Persian cat of aristocratic ownership who followed a randy tomcat from her wealthy home to the cemetery, and now a noted teacher of yoga;

Chopin - the once-composer and now Per Lachaise's Postmaster General, where the cats have learned how to write and do write often;

Sarah Bernhardt - still an actress despite losing a leg;

Marcel Proust - a Private Investigator investigating a series of mysterious thefts taking place over the course of the novel and whose head is often - quite literally - stuck up his nethermost orifice in search of inspiration;

Heloise and Abelard - back on Earth as kitties who are, respectively, a highend caterer and "lifestyle consultant" and a publicist; and,

Ondine - the only human character, known as the "Spay Queen;" the cats' arch-nemesis and an enthusiastic proponent of feline population control

Readers who appreciate a novel that is extremely weird but profoundly humorous and satirical will enjoy Waiting for Gertrude. Part romance, part fantasy, and part satire, the reader who enjoys Monty Python and Douglas Adams will be perfect for this insane look at the afterlife.

You simply have to love a book containing a sentence that reads, "There never was such a ratter as Sarah Bernhardt!" What a fun read!

I'm going to say this was the best book I've read in years. It was quirkey, unique and just plain fascinating. What an imagination this writer has! I love cats. I love literature! This book took those two subjects and blended them together to create the most enjoyable book I've read in a long time. I highly reccommend this to anyone who loves literature, who will appreciate recognizing literary greats plus meeting the most unsual characters ever together in a cemetary all inhabiting the bodies of stray cats!

This book is absolutely delicious! It is full of puns and hidden references. The exercise in devouring this little gem is worth every second. I didn't want it to end. It is a writers read as well as a readers read I recommend it to everyone who enjoys words. Don't waste another minute buy it! Doesn't hurt if you have spent time in Paris either.

WAITING FOR GERTRUDE by Bill Richardson is a fantasy delight. I've never been to Paris but his tour of the famous cemetery is fantastic, especially for a cat lover.
The famous personages buried there are reincarnated as the cats who inhabit the grounds. Your mind bounces as he combines wit and erudite to create an amazing read.
I gave it to my sister for Christmas, then I borrowed it back to read.
Nash Black, author of WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and SINS OF THE FATHERS.

This book was my first introduction to the delightful world of Bill Richardson. Now all of his books are stacked up by my bedside, ready to be devoured!

Imagine Alice B. Toklas as a hopeful cat, scurrying about the graveyard of the rich, literary, famous and infamous, Pére-Lachaise in Paris, waiting for a reincarnated Gertrude Stein cat! Then there is the amorous Oscar Wilde cat, smitten by the studly Jim Morrison cat, while the feline Isadora Duncan, pregnant by the artiste Modigliani cat, rants and dances her way among the tombstones! Get the picture! And this is but a small sampling of the cast of cats---Collete, Sarah Bernhardt, Proust, Chopin, purr, purr, purr, etc. all make an appearance or two or three. And then there is the mystery of disappearing body parts which is finally solved during the "99th Annual Renaissance Revue" on the steps of the columbarium...with snacks by Miss Toklas (there's always her infamous hashisch fudge at all the meals she caters!)

This tale aka tail is told by Alice with hilarious letters by some of the other pussies and limerick-like poems interspersed making for an all-round good read. There's lots of humor here, but there are also poignant observations and insights into life's ups and downs.