Valentines Eve

by Hav Gefter

Overview

Hav Gefter (1931—2006) was an American writer, a prolific craftsman in love with the English language, who put millions of deliberately chosen words on paper, who wrote a succession of fascinating literary works, and who was only published in the very last two years of his life. His works are noted for their honest and graphic descriptions of sex and human behavior, but more for their invention and use of language.

“Valentines Eve” is a frank unblinking examination of a man’s rich life with women.

It is “Valentines Eve” , and Hav Gefter has a list of questions to ponder, and to answer, all of them big questions of love and the heart, of sex and marriage. The questions are invasive, personal and intimate. And the answers? Hav Gefter is up to the challenge in this thoughtful and stimulating memoir.

“Valentines Eve” began in 1978 when Hav Gefter sat down to answer a list of provocative questions which had been prepared for him by a friend. The questions were about sex and marriage, women and love, topics always close to Hav Gefter’s heart. He sure didn’t need a list to prod him to write about such things, but the stimulating nature of these questions spurred him to even greater heights of self-revelation. “How many times have you come in one night?” was one question. “What was the longest period of monogamy you ever endured,” was another. “If you were forced at gunpoint to have sex with one of your former wives who would it be?” was yet another. These and more were all he needed to put pen to paper and start writing.

“Valentines Eve” deals with the women in his life. Sex with men was equally if not more important, but his male sex was never personal; it was always fleeting and anonymous, and intensely physical. He has written about that extensively in Closets and other books. Here he talks about his women, his marriages, his romances.

“Valentines Eve” is a real treat for the Hav Gefter reader. It is everything he does best, writing about himself and his life and his women with the most brutal honesty you will find in any writer anywhere. If you have never read Hav Gefter before, this would be an excellent place to start.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940016506739
Publisher:	Three Stars Press
Publication date:	06/16/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Hav Gefter (1931—2006) was an American writer, a prolific craftsman in love with the English language, who put millions of deliberately chosen words on paper, who wrote a succession of fascinating literary works, and who was only published in the very last two years of his life. His books are noted for their honest and graphic descriptions of sex and human behavior, but more for their invention and use of language.

When Hav Gefter died in February of 2006, he left behind a massive legacy. A half century of writing filling thousands of pages, binder upon binder, box upon box. Much of this is in the form of letters and journals, but an appreciable part of it makes up the series of unique and compelling books he wrote, beginning in the late 1960s, with the two volume “Pisse not on Their Ashes.” This milestone work was followed, in the 1970s, by a series of books, each of them a stunning achievement of style and power.

Hav Gefter has been called a “sober Bukowski” and indeed that might be a fitting description of the writer to whom daily life, sex, warts and all, was his subject. It was not easy for him; even his closest friends found his writing uncomfortably naked and raw; it seemed to trespass all normal boundaries of decency. But it was not Hav Gefter’s intention to titillate or arouse. He was not writing pornography. He only wanted to capture every aspect of a life lived, and a huge part of life is sex. And he wasn’t going to exclude it.

He also had no regard for any story telling convention. He cared not for plots, chapters, devices, gimmicks, or anything that might guide a reader’s attention. Like a mad painter attacking his canvas he just sat and wrote. He did go through multiple drafts and spent much time rewriting, but of the bigger picture, the shaping of a story, he had a blind spot.

The result was often a manuscript that started abruptly, went full steam and then stopped. He cared not for a beginning or an ending. There were rarely chapters or any kind of organization. There was little a reader would recognize as a standard literary form. It did not bode well when offering these works to agents and publishers. And yet what power there is in his work!

Hav Gefter is not for everyone. You either hate him or you love him. But if you are a true connoisseur of the English language, you may well become one of the latter.