Bohemian. Flâneur. Serial storyteller. The man who designed the mirrors, as he calls them. Guerrilla, even if it’s a lie. The poet then, the storyteller. He’s a friend of Thomas Pynchon’s and a novelist he admires. He’s a musician whom Bob Dylan considers both a friend and a fierce opponent. During the years of New York’s folk music boom, he went on stage, sang songs, told stories. He made up adventures for himself and improvised every moment of his life. He died two days after his first single novel came out of the printing press. In this article, I will tell you about a writer whose name you will probably hear for the first time, Richard Fariña, whose only novel has become one of the most memorable.
Bohemian, flâneur, serial storyteller, novelist: Richard Fariña
“I don’t remember exactly how, but frankly, I knew something about Richard Fariña before I met him face-to-face. It was the winter of 1958, the last days of the school year were approaching. I was a trainee editor of the Cornell Writer, the university’s literary journal. New stories and poems often came from a man named Fariña. He had a completely different voice, which made Fariña feel like he was coming from an unknown world. I asked someone who you were, but I didn’t learn much. All I need is some time! Before long, I would notice a dangerous being, neither wearing a jacket nor wearing a tie, with long hair sitting in the back row. It was quiet but intensely there, as if he was observing or even supervising everything without a hit. It took me a long time to find out he was Richard Fariña.”
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I got these sentences from an article by Thomas Pynchon, the legendary author of books such as The Crying of Lot 49, Inherent and Gravity’s Rainbow. He was describing a writer he admired, or rather, his teenage days when he first met her.
You know, Pynchon is a mystery man. On his way as a student of Vladimir Nabokov, he influenced many artists, from literary writers such as David Foster Wallace to directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson, and over time became a great literary writer. He is also referred to as “today’s Salinger” because he doesn’t like to give interviews, take pictures and live out of sight. So, given that he dedicated his masterpiece Gravity’s Rainbow to him, it’s clear that Pynchon was one of the first to be listened to about Fariña.
I have to admit, I just met this Fariña guy. On the occasion of the novel “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me”, which I stumbled upon during my two-week covid-19 quarantine… Would you look at the beauty of the book name; “I’ve been at the bottom for so long, it feels like a summit to me now.”
I’ve been at the bottom for so long, it feels like a summit to me now.
If you ask me what you understand from this book, which stands in the shady space between Beat generation literature and postmodern literature, I don’t really understand much. The adventures of the wandering traveler Gnossos Pappadopoulis, in which Castro and the IRA, politics and death, high levels of drugs and sexuality, were poetic, Fariña’s puns were dizzying, and the novel, which carried the psyche of the 60s, was dark but fun, but that was it. However I admired the author’s language, creativity and courage, frankly, the novel was too playful, too messy, exactly what he described as “overdosing” in accordance with the story he told. (I may have slaughtered Turkish using these two words repeatedly, but there is nothing to do, that’s exactly how the novel makes me feel.)
I have no complaints, I’m happy with my discovery, which has coloured my quarantine process. I’m just sorry richard fariña left this world early. Think about it, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me, the only published novel by this very talented author.
Fariña’s life marred by truth and lies
Let’s take a look at the life of this newly discovered author in a little more detail… Richard Fariña was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Irish mother and a Cuban father. During his college years, he befriended Bob Dylan as well as Thomas Pynchon. Dylan is important because through him he met and married Joan Baez’s sister Mimi. After a while, they started performing and singing together on New York’s famous Greenwich Village Folk Stage. Fariña also played guitar and santur. Their two albums, “Celebrations for a Grey Day” and “Reflections in a Crystal Wind” , took those years by storm, but to this day they only have two songs, “Hard Lovin’ Loser” and “Pack Up Your Sorrows”, which joan baez and johnny cash also sang.
I think that’s pretty much the facts we have.
However, the back cover of the original edition of Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me tells something else entirely.
“Richard Fariña was born to a Cuban father and An Irish mother, both of whom immigrated to the United States in the thirties. He lived in Cuba and Northern Ireland for part of his life. He joined the Irish Republican Army when he was eighteen. Later, fidel Castro went to Cuba while waging a guerrilla war in the Cuban mountains, becoming involved in the conflict in Santa Clara. After that, he lived in London and Paris for several years. He makes a living as a musician, street singer, screenwriting, acting, smuggling, or rather anything to save the day. He lost 30 kilos.”
I don’t think losing 100 pounds is going to do much good for his charisma, but I’m getting a bit of Arthur Cravan flavor here, don’t you think?
