A Short Story by Perle Besserman
It’s one of those minor Jewish holidays my principal uses an excuse to close the school in order to save on heating bills, and my uncle Harry is in town on furlough before shipping out to Vietnam, so here we are walking together through the fresh, winter-scarred streets of Brooklyn. I’m thrilled to be seen with my uncle in his military green jacket with its gold buttons and captain’s bars. Harry’s “an enlisted man,” and he loves parading this achievement in front of my father, who’s been rejected from serving in the military for having asthma.
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Tagged as:
New Literature Online,
Selected Online Writing,
Short Story
There was a time when our high school library held us by the neck. We were its slave. This was before the Internet was in every home. Our high school library had the Internet. And it had books. Lots of books. Some good, some not so good. A similarly indentured classmate — parts of the library were also used as cells — was fond of the not-so-good books. In fact, he’d shit in them. That’s right, poop. Over time his prowess grew. So did his derring-do. His goal: shit on page 109 of every lousy book in the library. He didn’t succeed, but he went far. That said, it’s Wednesday and we’re looking for relevance. Oh yeah. Time Magazine has an article on the bad books that line library shelves. Check it. Just avoid page 109. Moving on, Salon takes stock of blogging’s influence, the Boston Phoenix reviews a book about Wal-Mart, Marilyn French is lassoed by Bookslut, rest in peace Landis Everson, and the Believer imagines the Beatles on a personal level. There you go. And there you go, Erik Grant. And to all the 109’s that got away. – Kevin Murphy
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Tagged as:
Literature in the Media,
Wednesday's Writerly Happenings
