Brother Dumb

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By (author): Sky Gilbert

Brother Dumb is the memoir of a reclusive American literary icon. Brother Dumb is a how-to manual for meaningful critical engagement with the real world. Brother Dumb is a celebration of innocence, youth, and altruism. Brother Dumb is a true story of self-imposed exile. . . .

Brother Dumb is also a work of fiction.

Brother Dumb begins in the mid-40s, but spans decades, delving deep into the five tortured relationships that have shaped one writer’s psycho-sexual history — but it also details his bitter literary decline and withdrawal from public life. Brother Dumb is a misanthrope. His withdrawal from the world is as famous, or infamous, as his writing — something that he takes great pains to explain is not a desperate cry for attention.

Attention is the last thing Brother Dumb wants.

So why publish this memoir? Why expose himself to a world of stupid, lecherous, greedy, evil, and calculating people?

Because he can’t not write. And because, somewhere out there, a kindred soul might actually be reading. . . .

AUTHOR

Sky Gilbert

Sky Gilbert is an accomplished author, actor, filmmaker, and drag queen. Born in Connecticut, Gilbert studied theatre at both York University and the University of Toronto before becoming the co-founder and artistic director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in 1979. Gilbert left Buddies in 1997 to focus on his creative pursuits, and accepted a post as an assistant professor at the University of Guelph. A year after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Gilbert was named University Research Chair in Creative Writing and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph.