Gilbert Adair
Gilbert Adair was a Scottish author born in Edinburgh on December 29, 1944, known for his diverse literary contributions, including novels, children's books, criticism, and translations. He exhibited a deep appreciation for French culture, moving to Paris in 1968, where he witnessed significant social upheavals that influenced his writing, particularly his first novel, *The Holy Innocents: A Romance* (1988). Adair's literary work often explores themes of sexual fantasy and reality, as seen in his subsequent novels like *Love and Death on Long Island* (1990), which examines obsession and desire. His reputation extended beyond fiction; he was recognized as a film critic and cultural commentator, contributing to major publications like *The Guardian* and *The Sunday Times*. Notably, his translation of Georges Perec's *La Disparition* into *A Void* (1994) is celebrated for its creative fidelity to the original text, which omitted the letter "E." Adair's literary legacy includes a rich interplay of film, literature, and cultural critique, making him a significant figure in contemporary literature. His works continue to resonate for their exploration of identity, fantasy, and the human experience.
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Gilbert Adair
Writer
- Born: December 29, 1944
- Birthplace: Edinburgh, Scotland
- Died: December 9, 2011
Biography
Gilbert Adair was born in Edinburgh Scotland on December 29, 1944. Little is known of his upbringing as he declines to offer details of his childhood. During his youth, he learned to speak French and developed a Francophilia that impelled him to leave England for France. In 1968, he was living in Paris and witnessed the outbreak of the student revolts that would later form the backdrop of his first novel The Holy Innocents: A Romance (1988). While he lived in Paris, he published poems in both French and English, but earned his living teaching English. He returned to England in 1978 to advance his writing career and continues living between London and Paris.
Adair’s reputation as a versatile writer includes novels, children’s books, criticisms, and translations. Through his writing in national newspapers and magazines, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, Esquire, and his weekly “Scrutiny” column in the Sunday Times, he gained recognition as a film critic and social commentator. In 1981, Adair published Hollywood’s Vietnam: From “The Green Berets” to “Apocalypse Now,” a volume of film criticism arguing that Hollywood’s depiction of the Vietnam conflict distorts its reality. In Myths and Memories: A Dazzling Dissection of British Life and Culture and The Postmodernist Always Rings Twice: Reflections on Culture in the 90’s, he surveys contemporary culture by discussing film, television, and fashion.
Adair has offered two sequels to children’s books: Alice Through the Needle’s Eye, a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan and the Only Children, a sequel to Peter Pan. His novel The Holy Innocents, A Romance (1988), evokes Jean Cocteau’s film Les Enfants Terrible, and also includes references to French New Wave masters such as Jean Luc Goddard and Jacques Rivette. The novel follows a pair of French film-loving twins and an American film student as they indulge in sexual experimentation that draws them away from the outside world into a frightening surreality. In his next novel, Love and Death on Long Island (1990), an aging writer finds himself obsessed with a teen idol and immerses himself in homosexual pornography as a way of gratifying his desire. Love and Death on Long Island has been seen as a spoof Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Both these novels concern themselves with the tragedy of sexual fantasy intruding on reality. Bernardo Bertolucci based his 2003 film The Dreamers on Adair’s novel The Holy Innocents. Subsequently Adair re-wrote the book and re-titled it The Dreamers to better conform to the plot of the film. It was released coinciding with the film.
His work in translation is perhaps the greatest achievement of his career so far. In 1990, after originally declining the commission, he set to work on Georges Perec’s lipogrammatic La Disparition. Four years later he released a vibrant English rendering titled A Void. While the plot and tone remain relatively true to the original, Adair adhered perfectly to Perec’s original formula of omitting the letter “E.” Gilbert Adair’s contributions to contemporary literature across genres are considerable, but he will be remembered most as the man who brought La Disparition into English.