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Richard & Paul
Unbelievable. So he finds this amazing artifact, and then just turns around and sells it the next day?
Ruins
Crowded Silence, Shaman in the Library, Three Pounds of Flax
SHAMAN IN THE LIBRARY
Naked except for a loin cloth,
ritual scars, and streaks of red clay
he attends the staff meeting.
Bowl haircut, back straight, face impassive.
After the Outing – For Edward Gorey
Zillah raises the glass to her lips and tips the gin into her mouth. It hits her tongue with a dry coolness—she has long since become desensitized to the sting—and its arid, herbal vapors tickle the inside of her nose. No tinkle in her glass, no ice cubes to fence out with her lips. As always, she drinks it neat.
Big Shot
We only ever called him Bignami, and what a name it was. You’d hear it ringing out over the quad like the chatter of myna birds: Big – naaa – me!
The Hammock Half
The difference between my life in Tennessee and my life in the big city amounted to hammocks.
I said this slowly because he looked drunk— likely dim prior to drunk— nonetheless a certain shade of peculiar which seemed attractive. From a distance at first, and now, up close.
Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson
Why would anyone living today want to read Shakespeare? Thanks to Hogarth Press and their Shakespeare Project, I am finding out. I am only two books in, but reading the retellings after reading the plays is becoming an eye-opener for me. I have been told he is revered and still famous because he captured the timeless conundrums of human existence. I have come to find out that is true. I realize that sounds lofty but seriously, The Gap of Time based on The Winter’s Tale covered the pitfalls of jealousy. Shylock Is My Name, a retelling of The Merchant of Venice, features revenge, anti-Semitism, and cultural trickery.