Chapters (60)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Personae
- I: Early Days
- One. Control
- Two. Doubt
- Three. Fate
- Four. Same
- Five. Fine Arts
- Six. In Loco Parentis
- Seven. Settling
- Eight. Neighbors
- Nine. Prospects
- Ten. The Lucky
- Eleven. Instruction
- Twelve. Same
- Thirteen. This Is a Pipe
- Fourteen. This Is Not a Pipe
- Fifteen. The Reason
- Sixteen. That Person
- Seventeen. Predictably
- II: Writing Teacher
- Eighteen. Early Poems
- Nineteen. Motivation
- Twenty. Allegory
- Twenty-One. Grief
- Twenty-Two. A Portrait
- Twenty-Three. Veils
- Twenty-Four. Soft Power
- Twenty-Five. Lists
- Twenty-Six. A Break
- Twenty-Seven. Elsewhere
- Twenty-Eight. Custom
- Twenty-Nine. Parity
- Thirty. Fortune
- III: Volta
- Thirty-One. Images
- Thirty-Two. A Very Interesting Young Man
- Thirty-Three. Letters
- Thirty-Four. We Prefer to See Ourselves Living
- Thirty-Five. Love
- Thirty-Six. The Iceberg
- IV: Your Best Reader
- Thirty-Seven. A Novelist
- Thirty-Eight. In Advance of the Broken Arm
- Thirty-Nine. Their Penultimate Encounter
- Forty. Détente
- Forty-One. Worlds
- Forty-Two. Recognition
- Forty-Three. Persistence
- Forty-Four. And Then
- Forty-Five. Mingling
- Forty-Six. You
- Forty-Seven. Persona
- Forty-Eight. Est et Non
- Forty-Nine. The Author
- Epilogue
- Afterword: The Libertine
- Acknowledgments
- About the Authors
Her father, who was in his late sixties, had grown thinner rather than absolutely old. He had on a good scarf and a very good linen blazer and took her hand somewhat formally before kissing her on both cheeks. Clare knew that she was not radiantly beautiful but her father’s handling of her made her feel plausibly physically accomplished. He spoke to her in a pretentious combination of English and French that was mostly comprehensible. He took her downstairs to his local café, where a younger waiter with one dead front tooth was compelled to make much of monsieur’s daughter, la vraie Newyorkaise. When they were left alone the conversation passed from Clare’s plans to her father’s early life, his own time as a student in the Seminars. They were pressés for some reason, perhaps because the friend with the library wished to dine at a certain hour; Clare is now unsure. They must have exited the café and found her father’s car, yet this memory is extremely uncertain. It takes many forms and her father seems now to have had many possible cars. It is a dream retold to Clare by someone else and she bites her tongue so as not to interrupt but alas the narrative makes little sense, there are no nouns or verbs, only prepositions, and their order will not remain clear, they keep hopping over one another, becoming tangled and messed, and she has been assured that it is normal that she can but imperfectly remember these introductory moments as well as the impact itself, which occurred as they were accessing the Périphérique and the ancient Peugeot belonging to her father in which she, Clare, was also riding was impacted by a speeding Eurovan and they went together into a concrete barrier and Clare was painfully retained while her father, beltless, flew forward to be decapitated.
Five. Fine Arts
Five
Fine Arts
Around 2:00 p.m. Harry is reawakened by the sensation of something stiff and damp prodding his face. His eyelids are gummy so it takes a few seconds to orient. He remembers, before he perceives, where he is.
Harry is up and on his feet with an alacrity that surprises even him. His head is pounding.
Shortstack is standing too close to him. She has one hand over her mouth, and her head is rapidly moving back and forth on her orange neck as if she is rehearsing some hyperadvanced fellatio technique, though in fact she is only giggling uncontrollably, which is much worse. Also she is holding an uncapped Sharpie in her right hand. The smell of it suffuses Harry’s wrath. It’s so pronounced in fact it’s like he’s smelling his own upper lip.
Loudermilk is somewhere and will pay for this later.