Sublime

Besides, he talked so well—it would be like punching literature in the mouth.

You’re a starcher, he said, skinny but strong. You can fight them off, the Kafkas. Hit them in the kishkas. And remember to read the nature poets—a pastoral a day keeps the doctor away. Don’t be so proud of your anxiety.

Kafka was as popular in the Village at that time as Dickens had been in Victorian London.

I thought of white men arriving for the first time in an African village, strangers there, as I am a stranger here, and tried to imagine the astounded populace touching their hair and marveling at the color of their skin. But there is a great difference between being the first white man to be seen by Africans and being the first black man to be see

Is something the matter? I asked, but of course she didn’t answer. She didn’t believe in questions.

But I was like an immigrant who goes from a poor country to a rich one and can’t quite believe in his new prosperity. I distrusted my happiness—it seemed too easy and I was afraid it might be simply a failure of consciousness. My imagination itched and I had nothing to scratch.

He has a kind, round face and the relaxed, easygoing manner of someone who’s spent most of his life in California.