by Ann Bogle
We do this: We go out for coffee in Wayzata. We go to the Caribou that is next to the bookstore. Harry, an early retiree and investment strategist and good man, world traveler, stops at our table to ask if we have seen it: the Porsche Carerra parked just around the corner. He estimates it costs $350,000 and that there are fewer than ten of them in the country, six more likely. We haven't seen it, but Lena, my friend, says, "That's how much my house costs: $350,000."
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Illustration by Daniel Harris
"Gerade rechts zum Volkszimmer" (August 12, 2006) and "Dinner" (September 22, 2007) at Ana Verse: http://annbogle.blogspot.com.
In Big City Lit, Spring 2011:
http://www.bigcitylit.com/bigcitylit.php?inc=spring2011/fiction/bogle
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Fave!
I want to know more about these women who dine and wine, then smoke. Loved 'karen ties us up with talk.' So telling. Peace...
I'd just been thinking that I wanted to read an Ann Bogle and here are these two fine pieces, two for the price of one you might say, though my favorite line: 'For liver, it tastes very good, but for food, it tastes like liver,' is priceless. Would * them both if I could.
"I'm keeping this vague, because it is more important to get out and enjoy company and a meal once in a while than it is to report on it in a detailed format. You see how it makes for paler writing. I do."
I disagree! This is fascinating. Love the dry dry dry narrative voice, the humor running through, lines like: "Lena says she would only pay $5.000 to eat with Elvis..." and "For liver, it tastes very good, but for food, it tastes like liver."
Great.
Two gifts. Style and tone are wonderful in both pieces. "I order, of all things, beef liver. What a strange decision, to eat liver at a restaurant. All the women ask to taste it, as if it were an exotic appetizer. I give them all bites. For liver, it tastes very good, but for food, it tastes like liver. The thought of it, while I eat it, causes a ruckus in my esophagus, and twice I go to the women's room to burp violently near the sink." Strong writing, Ann. The words are a boat on a river. Fine work.
"...my brother a Christian member of a leftist party not invented yet."
This, one of many glittering gems throughout. I truly admire what you do with words, with the people you sketch so artfully.
" We take a quiz in moral values, phrased as a party game."
Fave
Jerry, Linda, Julie, Kathy, Sam, James LD, thanks for fav'ing and for your generous comments as well.
this struck me as a modern-day tarot, perhaps because of the "story-quiz" sequence. the german lucia drew me, of course, as did your title (love it, so DDR though hardly anyone will get that), if only because my daughter's name is lucia. wonderful piece. hat mir sehr gut gefallen.
Ann,
This is just very direct, immediate, terrific! Love, love all the details and immediacy of it.
Wow. This is terrific, Ann. My favorite line:
For liver, it tastes very good, but for food, it tastes like liver.
But there are so many wonderful details here.
An enthusiastic Fave!
Thanks, Marcus, Jerry, and Marcelle for your comments and fav's.
* from me
"She wears a diamond cross that covers her breastbone. I can't figure out why she is wearing a leopard print chemise. She is very married, as she tells us in plain detail. She says that she and Lucia are going to a private dinner with Bush in Wayzata for $5,000 per person. Lena says she would only pay $5,000 to eat with Elvis, and only if she got to sit right next to him."
Wonderfully rich characters and writing. *
We take a quiz in moral values, phrased as a party game. After the story-quiz, it comes clear that I place my values in the following order: Security (the old male friend), Love (the girl), Sex (the lover), Morals (the girl's female friend), Money (the old man).
--sweet christ, ann, must you always continue to astonish?
to write as if originality were your idea alone?
damn.
Mata, Kim, and Gary, thank you!
For liver, it tastes very good, but for food, it tastes like liver.
Oh, I love that line!
I'm intrigued by your characters and despite, on the surface, not liking them much, I definitely end up wanting to spend more time with them.
Oh yes this is just fine. So much detail and so much characterisation in such a tiny piece. I am utterly, utterly impressed. I just hope you're not having a joke on us with the title (reassured that Marcus thinks not!)
And, yes, I loved the line about the Christian leftist brother. *
Christopher, thanks for your comment and fav -- for reading.
Illustration added June 1, 2011.
Fantastic illustration from Daniel Harris, Ann!
"Gerade rechts von Volkszimmer" behaves like an elegant contour sketch, wherein the lines seems minimal, tossed off, spontaneous, but manage to depict figures, light, rooms, a world. The story, like "Dinner," is about so much: money, women, politics, vanity, age, language-and it is alive with aphorisms, gentle jokes, small truths. Fave.
Jim, thanks for the fav and the comment. It's cool to see what you see here.
I read this before (in your collection perhaps?) and thought I had commented on Fictionaut but guess I didn't. My bad! Another great story, Ann. Much much tastier than liver.
*
"I wear my Mizrahi evening dress that I got at Target for $6." Killer.
Bill -- thanks for stopping by the story page and fav'ing and commenting. I so appreciate your take on this and all my stories.
Thanks, Jack! The illustration of the story by Daniel Harris has disappeared from the page. I tried to find out why by posting in the general forum, and we couldn't discover the reason. To view the illustration, visit the Big City Lit page linked above or download Country Without a Name at Lulu (it's free).