Contents


Acknowledgments


I: Summer 1958


    The Inadequate Lamp Shade

    Summer Job

    A Sound Like Someone Trying Not To Make A Sound

    Unhappy Mothers

    Marion, Waiting

    Eddie Is Bored-And Horny, Too

    The Door In The Floor

    A Masturbating Machine

    Come Hither . . .

    The Pawn

    Ruth's Right Eye

    Dumping Mrs. Vaughn

    Why Panic At Ten O'Clock In The Morning?

    How The Writer's Assistant Became A Writer

    Something Almost Biblical

    The Authority Of The Written Word

    A Motherless Child

    The Leg

    Working For Mr. Cole

    Leaving Long Island


II: Fall 1990


    Eddie At Forty-Eight

    Ruth At Thirty-Six

    The Red And Blue Air Mattress

    Allan At Fifty-Four

    Hannah At Thirty-Five

    Ted At Seventy-Seven

    Ruth Remembers Learning To Drive

    Two Drawers

    Pain In An Unfamiliar Place

    Ruth Gives Her Father A Driving Lesson

    A Widow For The Rest Of Her Life

    Ruth's Diary, And Selected Postcards

    The First Meeting

    Ruth Changes Her Story

    Not A Mother, Not Her Son

    The Moleman

    Followed Home From The Flying Food Circus

    Chapter One

    Missing Persons

    The Standoff

    Ruth's First Wedding


III: Fall 1995


    The Civil Servant

    The Reader

    The Prostitute's Daughter

    Sergeant Hoekstra Finds His Witness

    In Which Eddie O'Hare Falls In Love Again

    Mrs. Cole

    Better Than Being In Paris With A Prostitute

    In Which Eddie And Hannah Fail To Reach An Agreement

    A Happy Couple, Their Two Unhappy Friends

    Marion At Seventy-Six


A Reader's Guide

About The Author