Van References in Literature
McCarthy's Bar, A Journey of Discovery in Ireland
by Pete McCarthy, 2000
Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2000. ISBN 0 340 76605 0
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from Prologue, page 5: "...Why spend a feast-day - one that carries echoes of my earliest childhood memories - in an English pub, drinking overpriced Guinness and listening to Van Morrison's Greatest Hits, when for just £149, according to the weekend papers, I could do exactly the same thing in an Irish pub, only in more convivial company?"
The Whiff, page 13: "...I need to ease myself gently back into the seductive méle of Irish pub life, and it's reasonably quiet in here, despite the fact that Cheltenham Races (TV) and Van Morrison (CD) are on simultaneously. [...] It's quite extraordinary how often Van Morrison is playing when you walk into an Irish pub. Maybe the breweries pipe him in at the entrance, like supermarkets do with smell of baking bread; or perhaps the government imposes some sort of Morrison Quota, which is rigidly enforced..."
Forced Entries: The Downtown Diaries: 1971-1973
by Jim Carroll, 2000
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I meet up with Ted at Anne's. We smoke endless joints of powerful dope and check out the new Van Morrison album. That dude is hard to figure, for me at least. Everyone else swears by him. When I'm straight, eighty percent of what he does is narcoleptic finger-popping time, but I smoke a little grass and he's a genius, cut after cut.
Days In Heaven
by Guido Mina di Sospiro, 2000
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According to a brief note from the author "this is a novel which hinges on two main characters: a female rock critic, and a present-day Irish troubadour. The inspiration for the latter was Mike Scott, of the Waterboys. But the inspiration for much of Mike's and my own life has been Van Morrison himself. Indeed, he is featured in a pivotal scene in the novel, as he performs on stage and, in a sense, as he performs a miracle--that of making the cerebral, caustic, dressed-in-black critic FEEL rather than think. Fittingly for Van Morrison and Mike Scott alike, it is a blend of mysticism and pop music, indeed inspired by Attar's THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRD, and endorsed by the British philosopher Rupert Sheldrake".
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married
by Marian Keyes, 1999
"You must be out of your mind" I said firmly, "I am not about to enter that twilight world of singles bars, singles laudromats, men who say on the phone that they look like Keanu Reeves and then when they turn up they're more like Van Morrison without the dress sense."
Gloria
by Mark Couvelis, 1995
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Van fans may want to check out this first novel by Mark Couvelis, who notes in an Email message that it "makes several allusions to Van Morrison's songs, and is, of course, titled after his signature cut."
In Lucky You, page 178
by Carl Hiaasen, 1997
Krom said, "Whose turn on the radio?"
"Mine." She reached for the dial.
During the long hours in the car, the two of them had encountered a potentially serious divergence of musical tastes. Tom believed that driving in South Florida required constant hard rock accompaniment, while JoLayne favoured songs that were breezy and soothing to the nerves. In the interests of fairness, they'd agreed to alternate control of the radio. If she lucked onto Sade, he got Tom Petty. If he got the Kinks, she got an Annie Lennox. And so on. Occasionally they found a common ground. Van Morrison. Dire Straits. "The Girl with The Faraway Eyes", which they sang together as they road through Florida City. There were even a few mutual abominations (a Paul McCartney - Michael Jackson duet, for instance that propelled them to lunge simultaneously for the tuning button.
From Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
by Rebecca Wells, 1997
The opening paragraph of chapter 30
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Connor and Sidda sat out on the deck in their shorts and T-shirts after having slept till noon. Van Morrison played on the CD and Hueylene was almost sobbing she was so happy to be eating bits of bacon that Connor snuck her from his plate. He had cooked Sidda's favorite breakfast: fresh sour-dough French toast with maple syrup.
From the poem "The Nine Sentiments"
in Handwriting: Poems, page 35
by Michael Ondaatje
Published 1998
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[...]Van-L list member Jim Chiarelli sends the following:Sidelong coquetry
at the Colombo ApothecaryDesire in sunlight
Aliganaya - 'the embrace
during an intoxicated walk'
or 'sudden arousal
while driving over speed bumps'Kissing the birthmark
on a breast,
tugging his lotus stalk
(the literal translation)
on Edith GroveOr 'conquered on a car seat'
Along Amarasekera MawathaOne sees these fires
from a higher place
on the cadju terracethey wander like gold
ragas of longing
lit like sequin
on her shifting green dress[...]
OK, the Fresh Air radio program is re-broadcast here in the Boston area at 11:00 PM so I taped it and gave it a second, closer listening this morning. Here is more detail on what I posted yesterday.The poem in Michael Ondaatje's new book Handwriting that features the line from "Cypress Avenue" is entitled "The Nine Sentiments" and the line is "conquered on a car seat." Apparently, Ondaatje mentions VM in the acknowledgments for that poem, which is what called it to the interviewer's attention.
Ondaatje said in response to the interviewer's question about VM that:
"...there are two or three regular characters in all my books, one is Fats Waller [Ondaatje spoke earlier in the interview of how he is a great jazz fan] and one has become Van Morrison. In the book I'm working on right now there is some other reference to Van Morrison. When Anthony Minghella was making "The English Patient" I said the only person I wanted to cast was Van Morrison in some small role so I could meet him. And in fact he [Minghella] is as big a fan as I am, in fact more so, but I guess in the excitement of making the film he forgot. I thought he [Van Morrison] would be a good ambulance driver or something."
Interviewer Ken Tucker (sitting in for Terry Gross): "A good grouchy one!"
Ondaatje: "Yes!" [laughter]
From the poem "Tin Roof"
in Secular Love, page 41
by Michael Ondaatje
ISBN 0-393-30247-4
Published 1984 by Norton
[...]That's me. You. Educated
at the Bijou. And don't ask me
about my interpretation of "Madame George."
That's a nine-minute song
a two hour story.[...]
From "With Your Tongue Down My Throat"
by Hanif Kureishi
in Granta, 22, Autumn 1987
ISBN 0140086013
pp. 21-76
(page 31) Something attractive. We'll have to get the bus and go east, to Holland Park and round Ladbroke Grove. This is now honeyed London for the rich who have preservatives in the conservatories. [...] And there are more stars than beggars. For example? Van Morrison in a big overcoat is hurrying towards somewhere in a nervous mood. "Hiya, Van! Van? Won't ya even say hello?" I scream across the street. At my words Van the Man accelerates like a dog with a winklepicker up its anus.
From The Lies That Bind
by Judith Van Gieson, 1993
ISBN 0-06-017705-5
pages 2-3
I pulled a tape from the glove compartment and plugged it in. Van Morrison singing about "The Days Before Rock 'N' Roll," the days before America woke up from its sexual, sensual slumber. He named the early rockers: Fats, Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Elvis, the guys whose songs come out of the radio at night from places like Harlingen, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, to stab you with memories. There were women in the early days of rock 'n' roll too, but not often on the radio and not on this tape. Van Morrison's heroes were all men. I remembered a singer I saw a couple of years before in L.A., a big black woman rocking her way into middle age without missing a beat, but I couldn't remember her name. Two short words, and the first one began with an E. That was it.
From The Sibling Society
by Robert Bly, 1993
New York: Vintage Books, 1997
page 202
But you have to know that in the mythological world, a mad-looking Hedgehog Boy is perched about two thirds of the way up your spine; he's sitting on a long-beaked, red-wattled rooster, with long silver and gold tailfeathers hanging down, playing great music in the Van Morrison mood, and watching the big-teated sows below feeding the piglets and grunting.
From the song "U-Li-La-Lu"
by Poi Dog Pondering
from their 1990 album:
Wishing Like a Mountain and Thinking Like The Sea
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You should wear with pride the scars on your skin
They're a map of the adventures and the places you've been
"Praise God," he said lifting his drink.
"And the devil too!" you said with a wink.
Hey Woody Guthrie! Hey Marc Chagall!
There's far too many of you to thank you all
But I wanna talk about the gift that you gave
I'm so happy about the gift that you gave!
(A friend of mine once said....
"If you're ever around when someone dies,
Look up and wave, they'll get a big kick out of it.")
If I should die in a car wreck,
May I have Van Morrison on my tape deck.
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