The Orgy-Chrysis JungblathI love learning par hasard.I had just sold some books at The San Francisco Bookstore (in Paris) and was walking home. At the reduced price tables at Shakespeare and Co. I found a copy of Jim Fergus' THE MEMORY OF LOVEFergus sells more books in France than America and I was curious to know why. I do now, and not only did I discover a great writer, but learned about the Montparnasse painter Chrysis Jungblath, whose painting The Orgy, inspired THE MEMORY OF LOVE.
The Great War of 1914 may well be the war that inspired the most great literature; from the poems of Sassoon, Graves and Owen, to the novels of Remarque and Hemingway. It also launched The LostGeneration of Montparnasse that began with death of Modigliani in 1920 and ended with Pascin's suicide in 1930.
Into this world Fergus inserts Bogart Lambert, a "cowboy" from Colorado who rides his horse to New York to board a ship to France and join the French Foreign Legion to fight the Hun. Like many, he is badly wounded, but after a lengthy recovery he finds love in Paris.
Inspired by Chrysis Jungblath and her painting , The Orgy, Fergus deftly blends fact and fiction in a story that moves at a page-turning pace while evoking the magic of Montparnasse and the slow evolution of deep love.
