are talking about at all, but the
book I
intended
to write. I have
been led away out of momentum
into another arena. A clothes closet,
really. You get the effect of muffled
voices and people scuffling around
trying to get out. Like all traps,
this one demands their full atten–
tion. They have
become
quarrel–
some in their concern with minor
details of escape and precedence
and have quite forgotten the world
outside.
I am back on familiar ground.
For I don't think this at all-just
as much as I do think it.
Death is the only theme which
really interests me. I want to write
a classic study of death. To have
seen many people die builds up in
555
one an absolute compulsion, des–
pite one's lack of listeners, to
tell
what it does to all of us. "People
don't want to read about death,"
an editor told
me,
"It
depresses
them."
I hit the radio as I
come
in and
pass it. It is infirm and someday
will fall apart under this ruthless
therapy. But now it revives and
the announcer says, "The news is
brought to you eight times daily
by Goldberg's Fashion Forum,
where Men and Women Keep
Their Reputations For Being Well–
Dressed." Now in the silence left
by this statement, enters like a
balm the Bach "Arioso."
I am still experiencing my new–
found Fame and Fortune. I have
A
master of the American novel
probes the basic conflicts
of a modern American marriage
James
T.
Farrell
a new novel
The Road
Between
by Ih.
crealor af
STUDS LONIGAN
At
all bookstores • $3.50
