The Sisters Brothers

At any rate I got the impression he did not care to know the answers but was merely pleased to be making his inquiries.

Charlie was asleep on his back, eyes wide open, and with a full erection pressing against the front of his pants, which despite my not wanting to know about the thing I took as a sign of wellness.

there had been no other people around to upset his volatile nature,

We did not ask that he elaborate, but he needed no invitation to continue:

Stamm might have been walking to an outhouse, for all the concern he displayed.

in a frenzy of commerce,

The trappers, meanwhile, were unhappy we had usurped their glory with the she-bear and were, I felt, preparing to exhibit rudeness. To thwart this I introduced Charlie and myself, our full names, which silenced them. Now they will hate us ever more virulently, but secretly, I thought.

from hat to shoe

despite a lingering bitterness, that our night of shared glory had ended in such a tangle of grotesqueness and failure.