Abdel Sattar Nasseri, an Iraqi fiction writer. 60 something, still good looking despite his wasted time philandering- as he stated himself. Rather lonely but still going strong...
An amazing character I just discovered recently. I have heard of him before, but had not read any of his works. What is so amazing about him is his total honesty about who he is and the different aspects of his personality that are reflected in the various fictitious characters of his work.
He said he makes a point to be very honest with himself first and that honesty transmutes itself onto his pages...
His honesty cost him much - friends and foes were at his throat. Most of the time out of sheer jealousy and envy, nearly destroying him as he said. Yet he perseveres in that same philosophy of soul transparency...For him, not doing so, robs his writings of a much needed Reality. He does say that not all his characters are real, but all of them are derived from Reality.
A good majority of his readers are women. Maybe that has to do with the fact that he is handsome and romantic but it has mostly to do with the fact that he captures the feminine element so well that female readers identify themselves with it so easily. I suppose they bond with him through his pages...and he becomes a voice for them, one voice...
The Feminine element is all present in his works and in his life. His female characters are either very strong, or submissive, obedient or seductress vamps, depending on the plot...he manipulates the characters well but he does admit that he has very often fallen prey to Women - and not necessarily in the negative sense.
The women that marked him most were Italian women during his sojourn in Rome. He said that Italian women were something else...They knew what a man wanted and they knew how to give it. They thus left an indelible mark on him for which he is very nostalgic or comes across so...
Of course despite his honesty, Nasseri will never say anything akin about his own women folk - Iraqi women...in his mind's eye that would make them de facto loose elements...But then Nasseri, despite his creativity, is a typical Middle Eastern male with all the double standards that this entails...
When asked in conclusion what is that he regrets most: His reply was again brutally honest "My Narcissism. I wish I had not been so narcissistic. I missed so many opportunities"...
I suppose Loneliness did catch up with Creativity in his case.
The price to pay.
