The Book

“Both authors skillfully build on their recollections to bring a vanished world to vibrant life.”
— Kirkus Reviews - Read the full review

The Dishwasher Dialogues offers a rare insight into the Paris of the nineteen seventies as few people knew it.

Here is a rich dialogue between a Canadian dishwasher/bartender and an American bartender/dishwasher at the legendary soul food restaurant Chez Haynes in the red light district of Paris. The staff were dreamers, writers, painters, actors, dancers, and photographers. They all survived thanks to the legendary African American Leroy Haynes, who knew everybody from the mayor and the stars of the day to the call girls deluxe. Between dishwashing and mixing cocktails, these two young exiles wrote and painted, talked art and death, and embraced their demons and muses. They lived it and never forgot.

In Paris. A city at the end of an era. The metro had wooden doors and many streets had public urinals. There were no computers, credit cards, or copying machines; most apartments had no phones or heating or indoor toilets. There were the big spenders in sable coats and Ferragamo shoes, the daily scolding from the waiters and shopkeepers, and the clochards dying of the cold at the metro gates. But freedom beckoned everywhere. The cops left you alone, the authorities looked the other way and the metro (plus a cheap carte orange) took you to every nook and cranny of the city. There may not have been much equality or fraternity, but liberty ran rampant.

Published by Orléans Press.

Gregory James Light was born in 1951 in Canada. He lived abroad for 42 years in Paris, London, and Chicago before his recent return to Toronto. He is a writer, performance artist and professor. In addition to four books (Sage, Bloomsbury, Harvard University Press), and 70+ chapters and academic papers, he has published four works of poetry and theatre. His plays and performance pieces have been produced and performed in France, the UK, Switzerland, and Canada. He divides his time between Toronto and an island in the Canadian Shield. For more information, please visit www.gregorylight.com.

Rafael Sinclair Mahdavi was born in 1946 in Mexico of an American mother and an Iranian father. He spent his youth in Mallorca where he was home-schooled by his parents until the age of ten. He then attended European schools and completed his university studies in the U.S. As a writer, he has written six novels published by Kindle Direct Publishing and as a painter, he has had numerous solo shows worldwide. He holds multiple passports and speaks several languages. He divides his time between France and an island in Greece. For more information, please visit www.rafaelmahdavi.com.

About

Recent Events for The Dishwasher Dialogues

The Artsy Raven Podcast
Listen on Spotify or YouTube.

Kirkus Books 2023: Great Indy Book’s Worth Discovering

The Dishwasher Dialogues presented at The Frankfurt Book Fair
(October 18-22, 2023) by the Re-Naissance Agency.

Paris Reading/Exhibition of The Dishwasher Dialogues – November 9th, 2023
Monttessuy Center for the Arts (The American University of Paris)
9 bis Monttessuy, 75007 Paris

Early Bird Books
(March 3, 2024) Open Road Media.

The Dishwasher Dialogues presented at THE LONDON Book Fair
(March 12-14, 2024) by the Re-Naissance Agency.

Contact

You can reach Gregory Light here and Rafael Sinclair Mahdavi here.

For all rights inquiries, contact:
Laurie Blum Guest
Re-Naissance Agency
laurieblumguest@re-naissanceagency.com