Give Us This Day Our Dali...

Diary of a Genius
by Salvador Dali

`Diary of a Genius' is an honest and real study of the world's most acclaimed surrealist painter. Rich in imagery, Dali reveals the canvas of his life with candour, colour and masterful composition. Shadows of self-doubt are subtly juxtaposed beside his brilliant self-awareness, and his reflections are a fusion of form and feeling. Many of the entries are poignant, highlighting the painter's melancholic marriage to mortality towards the end of his life. In his final days, he sought neither separation nor divorce from it, accepting the inevitability that the brush strokes of his being would flourish for only a brief period more. Perhaps the most significant entry revealing Dali's resignation is that appearing on page 136:

`Cordoba - June19 1986

Had lunch today in a fish café on the Plaza del Potro. Table for one. Told the waiter that I had a young man's vision clouded by an old man's eyes. He told me to get glasses. I told him to get stuffed olives. The fish tasted like horse. I was disappointed because it usually tasted like camel. When the bill arrived, I realised I had no money so in lieu of cash I presented a napkin sketch entitled `Apparition of Ungarnished Paella Being Mocked by Pablo Casals on Beach'. The waiter gave me an inferior Picasso self-portrait on drink coaster in lieu of the change.
I no longer feel at home with human beings so I think I'll move to Los Angeles.'

This remarkable book is a work of genius about a genius' work.