story: “Dance in America”
author: Lorrie Moore
year: 1998
where: home, sleepy and dreamy
note: I am rereading…and searching for a quote I know is in the collection Birds of America…somewhere. Why did I not mark it?
a line: “I sit between the bulletin board and the window.”
story: “Wild Berry Blue”
author: Rivka Galchen
year: 2014
where: some backseat taxi, some bedroom
note: the strongest, in my opinion, from her American Innovations collection
a line: “He was my first love, my first love in the way that first loves are usually second or third or fourth loves. I still think about a stranger in a green jacket across from me in the waiting room at the DMV. About a blue-eyed man with a singed earlobe that I saw at a Baskin-Robbins with his daughter. My first that kind of love. I never got over him. I never get over anyone. ”
bonus line: “A part of me decides I am taking him back into my heart. Even if no room will be left for anything else.”
story: Joan of Arc Sits Naked in Her Dorm Room
author: Rachel Engelman
year: 2018
where: Abu Dhabi, airport apron, sitting inside one of those bulging A380-800s.
note: author is a current UT Austin/Michener MFA student
a line: “He is very politic and always asks Joan about her classes, or the book she is reading, or the fish she keeps in a wine decanter.”
story: The Sirens
author: Maria Dermoût
year: 1963
where: Above the Prada store, South Amsterdam
note: Wow, what an amazing protagonist and fairytale-like story. A dream.
a line: “The woman did not buy the proa because she loved the sea. She did not love the sea. She was afraid of the sea.”
story: Young Titans
author: Nescio
year: 1915
where: Amsterdam
note: reminds me of Kerouac
a line: “It was a strange time. And when I think about it, I realize that that time must still be happening now, it will last as long as there are young men of nineteen or twenty running around. It’s only for us that the time is long since past.”
story: Live Life King-Sized
author: Hester Kaplan
year: 1998
where: JFK, Etihad lounge
note: recording hiatus, apologies
a line: “I sent Jensen another beer, which he received with a verdictless shrug, and I turned on the ceiling fan to blow the death smell of Henry Blaze out to sea .”
story: The Hermit’s Story
author: Rick Bass
year: 1998
where: Burjeel cafe, English breakfast tea
note: read twice
a line: “A cold snap comes in October, freezes a skin of ice over the lake — it’s got to be a shallow one, almost a marsh.”
