Diane
Donovan, Senior Editor, Midwest Book
Review (Nov. 2022):
Dark
Refuge appears in print for the first
time since its original publication in 1938,
presenting a world traveler’s experiences
with bohemian life in Paris in a novel that
also serves (thanks to Rob Couteau) as a
biography of Beadle’s life.
Extensive
annotated references link Beadle’s
experiences to his fictional
representations, offering a literary
backdrop for understand-ing both the
atmosphere and progression of his fiction
and its roots in reality.
Readers
should be prepared for a sexual romp that is
ribald, explicit, and thoroughly steeped in
Beadle’s personal experiences of the times.
Beadle’s language is evocative, poetic, and
dramatic: ‘I simply slip through the other
room of the café and out into the other
boulevard, laughing to twist my guts. Nobody
knows that I have a rendezvous. The coat and
hat annoy me. How silly! I throw them away
as I run, for I know it is late and I’m
frightened that my beloved will not wait.
God is crying harder than ever, and I suck
in his tears. How funny it must be to weep!’
Whether
exploring drug experiments and the
revelations that follow them or descending
into the sordid and colorful world of
bohemian Paris, Beadle flavors all of his
impressions with the same attention to
flowery detail that makes his writing so
time-less: ‘Inexorably I was borne along up
this staircase of Time as an express lift
passes floors, glimpsing worlds where the
highest form of life was apes chattering
futilely in leagues of simian nations of
their own; where vast beasts resembling
tanks plunged through swamp and over
prairie; where the sky was of steam and gas,
and volcanoes burst like firecrackers on a
Chinese New Year amid a seething sea; and on
and on until there were no more worlds and
naught seemingly but incandescent void.’
Pair
this with the extensive notes and annotated
references Couteau injects to not just
explain but expand the story, for a sense of
the unique literary and historical
importance of this reappearance of Beadle’s
rare classic, which has been out of print
for far too long.
Libraries
seeking literary representations of the
marriage between fiction and nonfiction will
find Dark Refuge a fine example.
The 200+ annotated notes come from
previously unpublished letters and
docu-ments, combining with photos and
historical reviews to represent a hallmark
of not only literary fiction, but
biographical research.
Dark
Refuge deserves a place in any library
strong in works of literature that represent
the intersection between fictional devices
and bio¬graphical inspection, whether or not
there is prior knowledge of or interest in
Beadle’s works and importance.