A WRITER'S WIT The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be. Marcel Pagnol Born February 28, 1895

New Yorker Fiction 2016

Todd St. John

“That’s when I saw the man talking on his cell phone.
‘No, no one is with him, I can easily grab him,’ the man was saying.
Or was he? I didn’t know. I still don’t” (63).

A WRITER'S WIT Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men. W. E. B. Du Bois Born February 23, 1868

My Book World

A WRITER'S WIT Every day of my childhood, when I woke up for school, I’d glimpse Pablo Neruda’s house through my bedroom window, high up on one of Valparaíso’s fifty hills. Today, that house has become a museum, named after the poet, that attracts tourists from all over the world . . . [his] poems, many of them  born in his Valparaíso home, were a source of inspiration for many people as they fought the dictatorship and strove to create a more just society. As his Valparaíso neighbor, I owed Don Pablo a novel that portrayed his full being. Roberto Ampuero, Author of The Neruda Case Born February 20, 1953

New Yorker Fiction 2016

Abbott Miller

“Once, when they were still married, my father called my mother a fishwife. This may have been a joke, but it sent me to the dictionary to look up the word. ‘Coarse woman, a shrew.’ I had to look up ‘shrew.’ ‘A scold, a nag, from Old English for shrewmouse.’ I had to look up ‘shrewmouse.’ The book sent me back to ‘shrew, sense 1.’ A small insectivorous mammal. I had to look up ‘insectivorous.’ The book said that it meant feeding on insects, from the Latin insectum, for ‘insect,’ plus the Latin vorus, for ‘vorous.’ I had to look up ‘vorous’” (61).

“Ordinary moments make the life. This was what she knew to be trustworthy, and this was what I learned, eventually, from those years we spent together. No leaps or falls. I inhale the little drizzly details of the past, and know who I am. What I failed to know before is clearer now, filtered up through time, an experience belonging to no one else, not remotely, no one, anyone, ever. I watch her use the roller to remove lint from her cloth coat. Define ‘lint,’ I tell myself. Define ‘time,’ define ‘space’” (65).

A WRITER'S WIT I have a theory . . . that someplace at the heart of most compelling stories is something that doesn't make sense. Richard Ford Born February 16, 1944

My Book World

I'VE MADE IT MY GOAL to read the entire oeuvre of late Anglo-American author, Christopher Isherwood, over a twelve-month period. This profile constitutes the eighth in a series of twenty.

OSTNIAN RADIO. In view of the extreme gravity of the situation . . .
WESTLAND RADIO. The Leader . . .
OSTNIAN RADIO. His majesty the King . . .
WESTLAND RADIO. Has decided . . .
OSTNIAN RADIO. Has graciously consented . . .
WESTLAND RADIO. To address the nation . . .
OSTNIAN RADIO. To address his people . . .
WESTLAND RADIO. The address will be broadcast from all stations at midnight.
OSTNIAN RADIO. The address will be broadcast from all stations at midnight (57).

[ERIC and ANNA, dressed and made up exactly as in Act Two, Scene I, emerge from behind the screens at the heads of their respective beds, and advance into the light-circle. The beds fade into darkness.]
 
ANNA. Will people never stop killing each other?
            There is no place in the world
            For those who love.
ERIC.    Believing it was wrong to kill,
            I went to prison, seeing myself
            As the sane and innocent student
            Aloof among practical and violent madmen,
            But I was wrong. We cannot choose our world,
            Our time, our class. None are innocent, none (118).

A WRITER'S WIT In my experience ideology is a lot like religion; it's a belief system and most people cling to it long after it becomes clear that their ideology doesn't describe the real world. Maureen F. McHugh Born February 13, 1959

My Book World

Author LaRue

A WRITER'S WIT Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves. Brendan Behan Born February 9, 1923

My Book World

I'VE MADE IT MY GOAL to read the entire oeuvre of late British-American author, Christopher Isherwood, over a twelve-month period. This profile constitutes the seventh in a series of twenty.

A WRITER'S WIT Speaking generally, people who are drawn to journalism are interested in what happens from the ground up less than they are from the top down. Tom Brokaw Born February 6, 1940

New Yorker Fiction 2016

Jeff Bark | Elana Schlenker

A WRITER'S WIT I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. Ayn Rand Born February 2, 1905

My Book World