Dr. Delicious: Memoirs of a Life in CanLit

“The idea of being Dr. Delicious instead of plain old Professor Lecker made me think about the kind of writing I would have done if I was really the tasty version of myself. Professor Lecker would be reluctant to tell stories about his own life. He would resist the temptation to make his life in Canadian literature personal. He would not gossip. He would write scholarly articles and books that no one would read. But Dr. Delicious would lead a completely different life. He would delight in his classroom experiences. He would take liberties with his life story. He would talk about the ups and downs of being a Canadian publisher. He could bring in music, painting, hypochondria, malt whisky, deranged students, government grants, questionable authors, bank debt, termite infestations, a teaching stint in Brazil, lawsuits, the pleasures of hot-sauce. He would write about his passions, his failures, how the whole business of CanLit drove him crazy, lost him sleep, drove him on.”

Robert Lecker’s tragicomic memoir is an irreverent history of an explosive era in Canadian literature, a glimpse into the mind of a preoccupied professor, and a unique record of the generation that made Canadian literature what it is today.

Reviews

“…Lecker is an excellent example of academics who began to embrace the edgy, subversive and political possibilities of literature, explode the canon, and exploit the connection between the critical act and self-interpretation.” –British Journal of Canadian Studies