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
They enter the Common Lot. Most of what is inside the bar is painted black, and it is a long, narrow establishment. Adding character of a kind is a female mannequin wrapped in dusty ACE bandages to resemble a mummy. She is propped in a corner behind the bar. There is a HELLO MY NAME IS sticker affixed to her left breast; the sticker has been completed with LUSCIOUS, in cramped Sharpie. The only other decorative accent is a television screen above Luscious showing the evening news: a farmer in a local field whose comb-over a breeze lazily perturbs as he speaks into a microphone. The name MONSANTO appears in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Harry wonders if he should look this up later.
They score a booth and Loudermilk orders lagers. “Something gentle,” he comments.
The drinks come. Harry sips. Harry’s head spins.
Harry knows what to expect of himself in situations like this. He knows that the sugar from the beer will make him hyper. He knows he will want to speak. He knows he may or may not be able to stop himself from speaking to strangers when the impulse strikes. He knows that if he does speak, he’ll have to drink harder to forget what just happened. He knows that the harder he drinks to forget what just happened, the more he’ll want to say stuff and the worse it’s going to sound. So it is going to be bad tonight, probably very.
Loudermilk is asking Harry if Harry wants another.
Harry nods. Harry swills lager.
Additional people climb into the booth. These must be Loudermilk’s classmates. Harry has been given a sidecar containing Jäger and currently the shot glass is empty.
Harry squints at the unfamiliar faces of Loudermilk’s cohort. These are two females and a male. One of the females has glasses and the other a T-shirt advertising the doubtful sobriquet WEAPON OF MASS AFFECTION. The one with glasses will not stop talking, which is OK by Harry, totally fucking great. Let her take care of things for the moment! There is also this guy, who is sitting opposite Loudermilk, and the guy has his legs sticking out the side of the booth, straight out, and people keep almost tripping or having to walk around the guy’s legs and it’s obviously not a good idea, but the guy does not ever move the legs. The guy is bald, bearded, and weirdly he resembles, like, a giant baby? Harry is having difficulty understanding this. It seems like the guy can’t decide whether to stare at Harry or at Loudermilk. The guy keeps going back and forth. Harry suddenly really wants to help this poor guy out.
The glasses person is saying something now about how she and her boyfriend enjoy driving around the state. She says they enjoy looking at things that are authentic.