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“Oh, I go out,” I said too quickly, as a joke. “I’m constantly out.” No, of course I didn’t hang out in bars. I had been in my converted garage for the past fifteen years, working at the table with one short leg. And when I had gone out, it had been to attend my own events or the events and opening…

Two teenage girls passed by, long-limbed and golden, in very short shorts, and the Serb turned to watch them. One of the girls caught his eye, and nudged the other. The two girls stopped walking and consorted. Anyone new, anyone in a suit, was someone to flirt with.

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The Serb, with nativ…

“We always felt like there was something to honor in the clandestine nature of our communications with him but it’s wearing off.”

There was a time, he said, when a communiqué from Lacombe would come through and they’d all gather around the printer like supplicants, to read these emails full of o…

Watching the others go to prison, or to Algeria to fight for colonial France, Bruno had a revelation that he could change course, that his own commitment to mayhem was not inevitable, not total. He stopped thieving. He gave up drinking. He got a job punching tickets in the metro, rented a maid’s ro…

I put the book down and looked out the window. I heard wind, and no truck driving up the road.

Part of attraction is the unpredictable nature of everything, the manner in which you wait, and want.

Good for you, I thought at René, for reducing me to those who wait. But also, go to hell.

Hav…