by Gregg Chadwick Peter Clothier's scurrilously witty new novel "The Pilgrim's Staff" explores lust, lecherousness, and love through the voices of two men from two disparate centuries. David Soames, a contemporary figurative painter living as an ex-pat in Los Angeles, receives a curious package in the mail from an English cousin. Wrapped in layers of tape and memory is the two hundred year-old journal of an English gentleman, who begins his tale with the words,"I am no Rake!" "Rake" is a wonderfully antiquated word that refers to a man caught in the snares of immorality, particularly concerning the charms of the opposite sex. William Hogarth A Rakes's Progress:3 The Rake at the Rose Tavern 62.5x75.2 cm oil on canvas 1734 Collection Sir John Soane's Museum , London Writing this on the 10th of November, in a coincidence worthy of Clothier's novel, I am reminded that the 18th century English painter Wi...
