New Yorker Fiction 2014

A WRITER'S WIT
To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.
Jean Genêt
Born December 19, 1913

Young and Old Alike

Design—Gaffney / Photo—Sassen

December 22 & 29, 2014, Nuruddin Farah, “The Start of the Affair”: James MacPherson, a retired professor of politics at Wits, Johannesburg, buys a North African restaurant in Pretoria and becomes attracted to a much younger man, a Somali, who owns and runs a nearby shop. ¶ James acts somewhat like a cunning animal, as he envelops the Somali youth in his net of generosity. James sees that the young Ahmed is fed properly each day, takes him to his own dentist for his first visit ever, and clothes him. Ahmed even comes to stay with James in his huge house. ¶ They become close, emotionally as well as physically, holding hands as they watch TV. In the last scene the two men—James is three times the youth’s age—lie down together, but Ahmed begs off going any farther. The patient MacPherson prepares to wait even longer. The man is that confident. Nuruddin’s novel, Hiding in Plain Sight, was released this year.
Design by Evan Gaffney / Photo by Viviane Sassen

NEXT TIME: Behind the Book—MLPR, "Blight"

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