These few sentences telling me what I was, what...
These few sentences telling me what I was, what everything was, would have accounted not merely for four wives but for eight, ten, sixteen of themEveryone's narcissism is strong at a reunion, but this was an outpouring of another magnitudeJerry's body may have been divided between the skinny kid and the large man but not the character--he had the character of one big unified thing, coldly accustomed to being listened toWhat an evolution this was, the eccentric boy elaborated into a savagely sure-of-himself manThe original unwieldy impulses appeared to have been brought into a crude harmony with the enormous intelligence and willfulness; the effect was not only of somebody who called the shots and would never dream of doing what he was told but of somebody you could count on to churn things upIt seemed omega speedmaster replica truer even than it had been when we were boys that if Jerry got an idea in his head, however improbable, something big would come of itI could see why I had been infatuated with him as a kid, understood for the first time that my fascination had been not solely with his being the Swede's brother but with the Swede's brother's being so decisively odd, his masculinity so imperfectly socialized compared with the masculinity of the three-letterman
"Why did you come?" Jerry asked
About the cancer scare of the year before, and the impact on urogenital function of the ensuing prostate surgery, I said nothing directlyOr rather, said everything that was necessary--and perhaps not merely for myself--when I replied, "Because I'm sixty-twoI figured that of all the forms of bullshit-nostalgia available, this was the chanel tote one least likely to be without unsettling surprises"You like unsettling surprisesWhy did you come?"
"I happened to be up hereAt the end of the week I had to be up here, so I came Smiling at me, he said, "I don't think they were expecting their writer to be so laconicI don't think they were expecting quite so much modesty Keeping in mind what I took to be the spirit of the occasion, when I'd been called up to the microphone near the end of the meal by the MC (Erwin Levine, Children 43> 41 Grandchildren 9, 8, 3, 1, 6 weeks), I'd said only, "I'm Nathan ZuckermanI was vice president of our class in 4B and a member of the prom committeeI have neither child nor grandchild but I did, ten years ago, have a quintuple bypass operation of which I am proud That was the history I gave them, as much as was called for, torebki louis vuitton medical or otherwise--enough to be a little amusing and sit down
"What were you expecting?" I asked JerryThe Weequahic EverymanWhat else? Always behave contrary to their expectationsAlways found a practical method to guarantee your freedom
"I'd say that was a better description of you, JerI found the impractical methodRashness personified, Little Sir Hothead--just went nuts and started screaming when I couldn't have it my wayYou were the one with the big outlook on thingsYou were more theoretical than the rest of usEven back then you had to hook up everything with your thoughtsSizing up the situation, drawing conclusionsYou kept a sharp watch over yourselfAll the crazy stuff contained insideNo, not like me at all
"Well, we both had a big investment in being right," I said
"Yeah, being wrong," Jerry balenciaga handbags motorcycle said, "was unendurable to meAbsolutely unendurable
"And it's easier now?"
"Don't have to worry about itThe operating room turns you into somebody who's never wrong
"Writing turns you into somebody who's always wrongThe illusion that you may get it right someday is the perversity that draws you onWhat else could? As pathological phenomena go, it doesn't completely wreck your life
"How is your life? Where are you? I read somewhere, on the back of some book, you were living in England with an aristocrat
"I live in New England now, without an aristocrat
"So who instead?"
"No one insteadWhat do you do for somebody to eat dinner with?"
"I go without dinnerThe Wisdom of the BypassBut my experience is that personal philosophies have a shelf life of about two weeks
"Look, this is where life has devil wears prada chanel necklace lef