Almanac
by Ann Bogle
Marcy called on the abortion day. She had been reading from Source Almanac.
“Wisconsin produces more beer and brandy than any place, and furthermore, Milwaukee is a better city than Minneapolis, in all areas except one thing ... ”
“The police force,” I said. “Milwaukee police beat people like Philadelphia police beat people and bomb people.”
“And of the ten cities with most bars per capita, Wisconsin has six of them.”
Then I knew that four years at college, beer with Marcy and everyone we met may not have been normal. It had been a way to meet lonely people who were secretly brilliant and unfit to live how they must in a place.
I said, “Marcy, Source Almanac is a guide for the Apple.”
In Moscow there are oxygen tanks on the street because everyone drinks too much, like here, like Wisconsin. Maybe the students can't move from within.
I thought then of Robert, who was brilliant and spoke pure poetry, of how we met the only time in a bar and I loved him. He said, “Kill or be killed,” and he yelled at me because I couldn't shoot a gun.
I said, “Robert, I thought you were in mathematics.”
And he said, “Turnip, you little nothing sassy, kill or be killed.”
Then the other guys, who had been to Vietnam, too, said, “Robert, sit down.”
1985
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247 words
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Author's Note
This story went out once to Gordon Lish in 1988, who found it "weak." It is a Madison story of beer on State Street. It is the first story in my unpublished short story collection Institute of Tut. Andrew Lundwall published it in Poetic Inhalation in 2005.
Other stories by Ann Bogle
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Like a report from the front of the day drenched in beer, paranoia and violence. Hey, just like today.
"...secretly brilliant and unfit to live how they must in this place..." contains volumes.
The real deal, Ann.
Great form and phrasing, Ann. A real flow in the pacing. I like this.
Oh man, I really love this, Ann. It feels so simply put down on the page, very matter of fact, yet nothing extraneous or out of place, all the way through to those last three lines of pitch-perfect dialogue.
I disagree w/Mr. Lish on this one.
Great work, Ann.
I'll admit that I was drawn to this story because the story started with a Marcy. Which is not why it's wonderful, which it is.
I second David. "The real deal, Ann."
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This piece has facets of brilliance ... nothing weak at all. Agree with Julie about the ending, one of which to be envious.
great piece. i LOVE how this develops and how the dialogue folds neatly into the back story, which is political (gosh, thank you ann, thank you) and engaged. the characters are exquisite, highly developable, the title is excellent. this rocks, to use your quirky vernacular expression.
Effortless yet smart as hell. As a Philadelphian, I appreciate how you worked in the MOVE.
Ohhh. Yes. This is awfully good.
"And he said, “Turnip, you little nothing sassy, kill or be killed.”"
Lovely, lovely
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Oh, yeah. It's such a relief to read your smart comments and worry less about spare writing for a change.
I love the spareness of this, the everyday tone to it, the amalgamation of descriptions, the slipped-in back story, the feeling of being dropped right into the center of these characters' histories and their lives.
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It's a patchwork of bits that make up the whole person, a wonderfully woven enigma to solve. Nice.
You always seem to manage to put in just the right amount of dialogue. Terse, biting and plops down perfectly in the right places. Really admire that. Love that ending.
Good work. Like the line, "It had been a way to meet lonely people who were secretly brilliant and unfit to live how they must in this place."
This is what happens when you live for any time at all in Wisconsin. Thank God you didn't live in Iowa. *
I knew a Robert who was "brilliant and spoke pure poetry." Also, recognized much of home - I'm a Milwaukeean now-adays. Thanks for the great read.
"It had been a way to meet lonely people who were secretly brilliant and unfit to live how they must in this place."
I expect a lot of us have believed this of ourselves at one time or another. How clearly and cleanly you say it, though- Not many of us manage that. *
Madison has a history of just protest and in its history an anti-war bombing of the Math Army Research Center in which one unalerted graduate researcher was killed. The teens who perpetrated the bombing were in jail then eventually released. I attended UW-Madison during the conservative 1980s, but even then there was protest of violence against women, apartheid, and covert war in Central America.