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$5.50
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter Hyperion 1995 paperback. . Clean crisp copy with no markings.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1141712. ISBN #0786880937 / 9780786880935. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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$5.50
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter (Norton Critical Edition) Third Edition W.W. Norton & Company 1988 paperback. . Some underlining / highlighing but good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1143522. ISBN #0393956539 / 9780393956535. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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$10.00
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel Three Complete Novels : The Scarlet Letter; The House of Seven Gables; The Blithedale Romance; and Twenty Short Stories Gramercy Books 1993 hardcover. . Clean crisp copy with no markings.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. JACKET COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1153935. ISBN #0517093413 / 9780517093412. (keywords: Literature Literary Classics Fiction) (filed under: Fiction ) *
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$6.50
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel Twice-Told Tales Reader's Digest Association 1989 hardcover. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1071923. ISBN #0895773325 / 9780895773326. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel Twice-Told Tales Reader's Digest Association 1989 hardcover. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1071923. ISBN #0895773325 / 9780895773326. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary Allegorical, supernatural and symbolic themes permeate these strange tales. Included are: "Legends of the Province House", "The Grey Champion", "Prophetic Pictures", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", "The Ambitious Guest", "Wakefield", "The Great Carbuncle", "David Swan", "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" and "The Threefold Destiny". Four 90's .
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$6.50
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel Twice-Told Tales 1989 hardcover. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1123030. ISBN #0895773325 / 9780895773326. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel Twice-Told Tales 1989 hardcover. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1123030. ISBN #0895773325 / 9780895773326. (filed under: Fiction ) *
stock image, actual book may vary Allegorical, supernatural and symbolic themes permeate these strange tales. Included are: "Legends of the Province House", "The Grey Champion", "Prophetic Pictures", "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment", "The Ambitious Guest", "Wakefield", "The Great Carbuncle", "David Swan", "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" and "The Threefold Destiny". Four 90's .
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$5.50
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales Oxford University Press 1999 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1091196. ISBN #0192836005 / 9780192836007. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hawthorne, Nathaniel Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales Oxford University Press 1999 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1091196. ISBN #0192836005 / 9780192836007. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary The first paperback edition to include full annotations of these twenty Hawthorne tales written between the 1830s and 50s, this volume contains the classic pieces "Young Goodman Brown," "The Maypole of Merry Mount," "The Birthmark," "The Celestial Railroad," and "Earth's Holocaust," as well as tales, such as "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," which represent Hawthorne's interest in the spiritual history of New England.
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$3.95
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Hayes, Katy Lindbergh's Legacy 2003 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1051288. ISBN #0753817748 / 9780753817742. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hayes, Katy Lindbergh's Legacy 2003 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1051288. ISBN #0753817748 / 9780753817742. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary In Dublin in 2001, Alison and Charlie await the birth of their first baby. But the birth of Charlie's son whom he names Michael after his long-lost father makes him begin to wonder about his past. When Alison stumbles across some old papers and effects belonging to his mother, the ball is set in motion. Meanwhile, Charlie's grandparents, Marie-Therese and Cormac, a sergeant in the local Garda, play out their courtship, marriage, and the birth of their son Michael, against the tense political atmosphere of Ireland in the 1920s.
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$3.95
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Haynes, Melinda Chalktown 2002 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1131160. ISBN #0743442504 / 9780743442503. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Haynes, Melinda Chalktown 2002 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1131160. ISBN #0743442504 / 9780743442503. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary From the acclaimed author of Mother of Pearl comes the story of Chalktown, an eerily quiet village in George County, Mississippi, where folks communicate with one another solely through chalkboards hanging from their front porches. Sixteen-year-old Hezekiah Sheehand lives down the road with his reckless sister, Arena, his mentally disabled younger brother, Yellababy, and their often cruel mother, Susan-Blair, whose husband has abandoned the family. The mystery of Chalktown calls to Hez, and one day he sets out with Yellababy strapped to his back, determined to divine the key to the chalk. Meanwhile, his family confronts a tragedy that just might pave an unexpected road toward a hopeful future.
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$4.95
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Haynes, Melinda Mother Of Pearl 2000 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1031105. ISBN #0671774670 / 9780671774677. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Haynes, Melinda Mother Of Pearl 2000 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1031105. ISBN #0671774670 / 9780671774677. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary Capturing all the rueful irony and racial ambivalence of small-town Mississippi in the late 1950s, Melinda Haynes' celebrated novel is a wholly unforgettable exploration of family, identity, and redemption. Mother of Pearl revolves around twenty-eight-year-old Even Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, the fifteen-year-old white daughter of the town whore and an unknown father. Both are passionately determined to discover the precious things neither experienced as children: human connection, enduring commitment, and, above all, unconditional love. A startlingly accomplished mixture of beauty, mystery, and tragedy, Mother of Pearl marks the debut of an extraordinary literary talent.
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$5.99
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Haynes, Melinda Willem's Field: A Novel Washington Square Press 2004 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Remainder Mark. Book #or1131027. ISBN #0743238508 / 9780743238502. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Haynes, Melinda Willem's Field: A Novel Washington Square Press 2004 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Remainder Mark. Book #or1131027. ISBN #0743238508 / 9780743238502. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary Featuring a WSP Reading Group Guide Purvis, Mississippi, 1974: Willem Fremont has just returned to his childhood hometown to come to grips with his past. He has spent his adult life held tight inside the clenched fist of panic disorder -- the stagnation produced by making too many wrong decisions was more paralyzing than a whole case of Jim Beam. Determined that a trip back to the family farm will help him confront his unhappy upbringing, Willem is stunned to find his father's beloved acreage -- so much land, such a great big house -- in the hands of Eilene Till and her two grown sons. There's the plump and perennially unemployed Sonny, building a shrimp boat in the Tills' landlocked backyard, and Bruno, a disabled Vietnam vet, who escapes into his stash of old National Geographics while his wife, Leah, seeks a small measure of comfort in the day-to-day tending of their farm. How Willem navigates through these unsettled lives to find love and reconciliation in his own is at the heart of this compassionate portrait of small-town America that celebrates the unusual, embraces the unwanted, and opens its arms to all lost souls in search of a home.
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$5.50
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Haynes, Natalie Amber Fury 2012 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1132796. ISBN #1782392785 / 9781782392781. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Haynes, Natalie Amber Fury 2012 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1132796. ISBN #1782392785 / 9781782392781. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary "Steady pacing paired with well-timed foreshadowing and fully realized characters make this one compelling from the beginning. Fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History 1992 , Erin Kelly's The Poison Tree 2011 , and Tana French's The Likeness 2008 will likely enjoy the new perspective Haynes' conversational style offers to similar material." Booklist After losing her fianc in a shocking tragedy, Alex Morris moves from London to Edinburgh to make a break with the past. Formerly an actress, Alex accepts a job teaching drama therapy at a school commonly referred to as "The Unit," a last-chance learning community for teens expelled from other schools in the city. Her students have troubled pasts and difficult personalities, and Alex is an inexperienced teacher, terrified of what she's taken on and drowning in grief. Her most challenging class is an intimidating group of teenagers who have been given up on by everyone before her. But Alex soon discovers that discussing the Greek tragedies opens them up in unexpected ways, and she gradually develops a rapport with them. But are these tales of cruel fate and bloody revenge teaching more than Alex ever intended? And who becomes responsible when these students take the tragedies to heart, and begin interweaving their darker lessons into real life with terrible and irrevocable fury? Natalie Haynes' The Furies is a psychologically complex, dark and twisting novel about loss, obsession and the deep tragedies that can connect us to each other even as they blind us to our fate.
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$5.50
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Healy, Sarah House of Wonder Berkley 2014 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Good. Book #or1125758. ISBN #0451239873 / 9780451239877. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Healy, Sarah House of Wonder Berkley 2014 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Good. Book #or1125758. ISBN #0451239873 / 9780451239877. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary When we were little and I needed Warren, I would rub my earlobe. And perhaps it was the alchemy of childhood, a magic that happened because I believed it could, but I swear it worked. He always came. Theirs wasn t always the misfit family in the neighborhood. Jenna Parsons s childhood was one of block parties and barbecues, where her mother, a former beauty queen, continued her reign and her twin brother, Warren, was viewed as just another oddball kid. But as her mother s shopaholic habits intensified, and her brother s behavior became viewed as more strange than quirky, Jenna sought to distance herself from them. She is devoted to her career and her four-year-old daughter, Rose. But now, in his peculiar way, Warren summons her back to 62 Royal Court. What she finds there a house in disrepair, a neighborhood on tenterhooks over a rash of petty thefts, and evidence of past traumas her mother has kept hidden will challenge Jenna as never before. But as she stands by her family, she also begins to find beauty in unexpected places, strength in unlikely people, and a future she couldn t have imagined.
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$4.50
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Heaney, Katie Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date 2014 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1132330. ISBN #1455544671 / 9781455544677. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Heaney, Katie Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date 2014 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1132330. ISBN #1455544671 / 9781455544677. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary "I've been single for my entire life. Not one boyfriend. Not one short-term dating situation. Not one person with whom I regularly hung out and kissed on the face." So begins Katie Heaney's memoir of her years spent looking for love, but never quite finding it. By age 25, equipped with a college degree, a load of friends, and a happy family life, she still has never had a boyfriend...and she's barely even been on a second date. Throughout this laugh-out-loud funny book, you will meet Katie's loyal group of girlfriends, including flirtatious and outgoing Rylee, the wild child to Katie's shrinking violet, as well as a whole roster of Katie's ill-fated crushes. And you will get to know Katie herself -- a smart, modern heroine relaying truths about everything from the subtleties of a Facebook message exchange to the fact that "Everybody who works in a coffee shop is at least a little bit hot." Funny, relatable, and inspiring, this is a memoir for anyone who has ever struggled to find love, but has also had a lot of fun in the process.
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$7.50
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Hearn, Lafcadio Some Chinese Ghosts Borgo Press 1999 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Good. Book #or972028. ISBN #158715000X / 9781587150005. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hearn, Lafcadio Some Chinese Ghosts Borgo Press 1999 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Good. Book #or972028. ISBN #158715000X / 9781587150005. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary "One of the real advantages of print on demand publishing is that it is bringing back into print some of those titles I've heard of and seen at conventions for years, but for which I'm unwilling to pay the high prices the aging books demand. This is a case in point. I've read a very few Hearn stories before, enough to be interested in finding some more, and now I have two books full of his work. . . Some Chinese Ghosts is a collection of ghost stories based on Chinese tales, rich in atmosphere, authentic in tone, and almost without exception very good stories. It was surprising to me that most Chinese ghosts are not villainous, but are actually the heroes who gave their lives out of duty and remain behind to remind the living of their sacrifice. If you liked Dunsany's Pegana stories, you should enjoy Fantastics as well, but almost any reader is going to enjoy Hearn's collection of Chinese ghosts." -- Don D'Ammassa, Science Fiction Chronicle
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$4.50
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Hearn, Lian Across the Nightingale Floor Riverhead Books 2003 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1157701. ISBN #1573223328 / 9781573223324. (keywords: JAPAN FICTION ACTION ADVENTURE FANTASY HISTORICAL) (filed under: Fiction ) *
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$3.99
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Hearn, Lian Grass For His Pillow 2: The Way Through The Snow 2005 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. JACKET COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1102628. ISBN #0142404322 / 9780142404324. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hearn, Lian Grass For His Pillow 2: The Way Through The Snow 2005 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. JACKET COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1102628. ISBN #0142404322 / 9780142404324. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary Both Takeo and Kaede have visions of their future. Takeo works to escape the Tribe and fulfill the last wishes of his adoptive father, Lord Shigeru Otori. And Kaede, heir to two seats of power, moves forward step by step, aided by her own wits and a precarious alliance with Lord Fujiwara. In their separate worlds, the two long for each other, knowing that they are meant to be together, wondering if they will ever see each other again. . . .
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$7.50
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Hegan, Alice Caldwell Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch Century Co. 1905 hardcover. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Good. Book #or1157821. (keywords: Fiction) (filed under: Fiction ) *
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$10.00
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Hegi, Ursula Stones from the River Simon & Schuster 1997 hardcover. . Slight moisture damage but good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. JACKET COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1026093. ISBN #0684844729 / 9780684844725. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hegi, Ursula Stones from the River Simon & Schuster 1997 hardcover. . Slight moisture damage but good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. JACKET COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1026093. ISBN #0684844729 / 9780684844725. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary "Stones from the River" is a daring, dramatic and complex novel of life in Germany. It is set in Burgdorf, a small fictional German town, between 1915 and 1951. The protagonist is Trudi Montag, a Zwerg -- the German word for dwarf woman. As a dwarf she is set apart, the outsider whose physical "otherness" has a corollary in her refusal to be a part of Burgdorf's silent complicity during and after World War II. Trudi establishes her status and power, not through beauty, marriage, or motherhood, but rather as the town's librarian and relentless collector of stories. Through Trudi's unblinking eyes, we witness the growing impact of Nazism on the ordinary townsfolk of Burgdorf as they are thrust on to a larger moral stage and forced to make choices that will forever mark their lives. "Stones from the River" is a story of secrets, parceled out masterfully by Trudi -- and by Ursula Hegi -- as they reveal the truth about living through unspeakable times.
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$5.95
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Hegland, Jean Into The Forest 1998 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1110584. ISBN #0553379615 / 9780553379617. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hegland, Jean Into The Forest 1998 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1110584. ISBN #0553379615 / 9780553379617. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary Set in the near-future, Into the Forest is a powerfully imagined novel that focuses on the relationship between two teenage sisters living alone in their Northern California forest home. Over 30 miles from the nearest town, and several miles away from their nearest neighbor, Nell and Eva struggle to survive as society begins to decay and collapse around them. No single event precedes society's fall. There is talk of a war overseas and upheaval in Congress, but it still comes as a shock when the electricity runs out and gas is nowhere to be found. The sisters consume the resources left in the house, waiting for the power to return. Their arrival into adulthood, however, forces them to reexamine their place in the world and their relationship to the land and each other. Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale, Into the Forest is a mesmerizing and thought-provoking novel of hope and despair set in a frighteningly plausible near-future America.
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$12.99
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Heinreich, Willi Cross of Iron Bobbs-Merril 1956 hardcover. First Edition. No dj. First US edition. Cloth cover soiled on back. BOOK COND: Used; Acceptable. Book #or1149573. ISBN #0939482053 / 9780939482054. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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$20.00
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Held, John, Jr. Grim Youth Vanguard Press 1930 hardcover. BOOK COND: Used; Good. Faded Spine. Discolored front boards. . Book #or776496. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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$5.50
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Hellenga, Robert The Sixteen Pleasures Delta 1995 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1061351. ISBN #0385314698 / 9780385314695. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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Hellenga, Robert The Sixteen Pleasures Delta 1995 paperback. . Some wear from use. Good used book.. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1061351. ISBN #0385314698 / 9780385314695. (filed under: Fiction ) *
 stock image, actual book may vary Chapter One Where I Want to Be I was twenty-nine years old when the Arno flooded its banks on Friday 4 November 1966. According to the Sunday New York Times the damage wasn't extensive, but by Monday it was clear that Florence was a disaster. Twenty feet of water in the cloisters of Santa Croce, the Cimabue crucifix ruined beyond hope of restoration, panels ripped from the Baptistry doors, the basement of the Biblioteca Nazionale completely underwater, hundreds of thousands of volumes waterlogged, the Archivio di Stato in total disarray. On Tuesday I decided to go to Italy, to offer my services as a humble book conservator, to help in any way I could, to save whatever could be saved, including myself. The decision wasn't a popular one at home. Papa was having money troubles of his own and didn't want to pay for a ticket. And my boss at the Newberry Library didn't understand either. He already had his ticket, paid for by the library, and needed me to mind the store. There wasn't any point in both of us going, was there? "The why don't I go and you can mind the store?" "Because, because, because . . ." "Yes?" Because it just didn't make sense. He couldn't see his way clear to granting me a leave of absence, not even a leave of absence without pay. He even suggested that the library might have to replace me, in which case . . . But I decided to go anyway. I had enough money in my savings account for a ticket on Icelandic, and I figured I could live on the cheap once I got there. Besides, I wanted to break the mold in which my life was hardening, and I thought this might be a way to do it. Going to Florence was better than waiting around with nothing coming up. My English teacher at Kenwood High used to say that we're like onions: you can peel off one layer after another and never get to a center, an inner core. You just run out of layers. But I think I'm like a peach or an apricot or a nectarine. There's a pit at the center. I can crack my teeth on it, or I can suck on it like a piece of candy; but it won't crumble, and it won't dissolve. The pit is an image of myself when I was nineteen. I'm in Sardegna, and I'm standing high up on a large rock a cliff, actually and I don't have any clothes on, and everyone is looking at me, telling me to come down, not to jump, it's too high. It's my second time in Italy. I spent a year here with Mama when I was fifteen, and then I came back by myself, after finishing high school at home, to do the last year of the liceo with my former classmates. Now we're celebrating the end of our examinations Silvia who spent a year with us in Chicago , Claudia, Rossella, Giulio, Fabio, Alessandro. Names like flowers, or bells. And me, Margot Harrington. More friends are coming later. Silvia's parents my host family have a summer house just outside Terranova, but we're camping on the beach, five kilometers down the coast. The coast is safe, they say, though there are bandits in the centro . Wow It's my birthday August first and we've had a supper of bluefish and squid that we caught with a net. The squid taste like rubber bands, the heavy kind that I used to chew on in grade school and that boys sometimes used to snap our bottoms with in junior high. Life is sharp and snappy, too, full of promise, like the sting of those rubber bands: I've passed my examinations with distinction; I'm going to Harvard in the fall well, to Radcliffe ; I've got an Italian boyfriend named Fabio Fabbriani; and I've just been skinny-dipping in the stinging cold salt sea. The others have put their clothes on now I can see them below me, sitting around the remains of the fire in shorts and halter tops and shirts with the sleeves rolled up two turns, talking, glancing up nervously but I want to savor the taste thrill of my own nakedness a little longer, unembarrassed in the dwindling light. It's the scariest thing I've ever done, except coming to Italy in the first place. Fabio sits with his back toward me while he smokes a cigarette, pretending to be angry because I won't come down, but when I close my eyes and will him to turn, he puts his cigarette out in the sand and turns. Just at that moment I jump, sucking in my breath for a scream but then holding it, in case I need it latter, which I do. I hit the Tyrrhenian Sea feet first, generating little waves that will, in theory, soon be lapping the beaches along the entire western coast of Italy Sicily and North Africa, too. The Tyrrhenian Sea responds by closing over me and it's pitch, not like the pool in Chicago where I learned to swim, but deep and dark and dangerous and deadly. The air in my lungs the scream and I saved for just such an occasion carries me up to the surface, and I strike out for the cove, meeting Fabio before I'm halfway there, wondering if like me he's naked under the water and not knowing for sure till we're walking waist deep and he takes me by the shoulders and kisses me and I can feel something bobbing against my legs like a floating cork. We haven't made love yet, but it's won't be long now. O dio mio . The waiting is so lovely. He squeezes my buns and I squeeze his, surprised, and then we splash in to the beach and put on our clothes. What I didn't know at the time was that my mother had become seriously ill. Instead of spending the rest of the summer in Sardegna, I had to go back to Chicago, and then, after that, nothing happened. I mean none of the things I'd expected to happen happened. Instead of making love with Fabio Fabbriani on the verge of the Tyrrhenian Sea, I got laid on a vinyl sofa in the back room of the SNCC headquarters on Forty-seventh Street. Instead of going to Harvard, I went to Edgar Lee Masters College, where Mama had taught art history for twenty years. Instead of going to graduate school I spent two years at the Institute for Paper Technology on Green Bay Avenue; instead of becoming a research chemist I apprenticed myself to a book conservator in Hyde Park and then took a position in the conservation department of the Newberry Library. Instead of getting married and having a daughter of my own, I lived at home and looked after Mama, who was dying of lung cancer. A year went by, two years, three years, four. Mama died; Papa lost most of his money. My sister Meg got married and moved away; my sister Molly went to California with her boyfriend and then to Ann Arbor. The sixties were churning around me, and I couldn't seem to get a footing. I tried to plunge in, to get wet, to catch hold, to find a place in one of the boats tossing and turning on the white-water rapids: the sit-ins, the rock concerts, the freedom rides, SNCC, CORE, SDS, the Civil Rights Act, the Great Society. I spent a lot of time holding hands and singing "We shall overcome," I spent a lot of time buying coffee and doughnuts and rolling joints, and I spent some time on my back, too the only position for a woman in the Movement. I'd had no sleep on the plane; my eyes were blurry so it was hard to read; and besides, the story I was reading was as depressing as the view from the window of the train flat, gray, poor, dreary, actively ugly rather than passively uninteresting. And I kept thinking about Papa and his money troubles and his lawsuits, and about the embroidered seventeenth-century prayer books on my work table at the Newberry that needed to be disbound, washed, mended, and resewn before Christmas for an exhibit sponsored by the Caxton Club. So I was under a certain amount of pressure. I was looking for a sign, the way some religious people look for signs, something to let them know they're on the right track. Or on the wrong track, in which case they can turn back. I didn't know what I was looking for, but I was trying to pay attention, to notice everything the faces of the two American women sitting opposite me in the compartment, scribbling furiously in their notebooks; the Neapolitan accent of the Italian conductor; the depressing French farmhouses, gray boxes of stucco or cinder block, I couldn't make out which. That's what I was doing paying attention when the train pulled into the station at Metz and I saw the Saint-Cyr cadet on the platform, bright as the Archangel Gabriel bringing the good news to the Virgin Mary. I'd better explain. Papa did all the cooking in our family. He started when Mama went to Italy one summer when I was nine it was right after the war to look at the pictures, to see for herself what she'd only seen in the Harvard University Prints series and on old three-by-four-inch tinted slides that she used to project on the dining room wall; and when she came back he kept on doing it. My sisters and I did the dishes and Papa took care of everything else, day in and day out, and whether it was Italian or French or Chinese or Malaysian, it was always wonderful, it was always special. Penne alla puttanesca , an arista tied with sprigs of rosemary, paper-thin strips of beef marinated in hoisin sauce and Szechwan peppercorns, whole fresh salmon poached in white wine and finished with a mustard sauce, chicken thighs simmered in soy sauce and lime juice, curries so fiery that at their first bite unwary guests would clutch their throats and cry out for water, which didn't help a bit. Those were our favorites, the standards against which we measured other dishes; but our very favorite treat of all was the dessert Papa made on our birthdays, instead of cake, which was supposed to look like the hats worn by cadets at Saint-Cyr, the French military academy. We'd never been to Saint-Cyr, of course, but we would have recognized a cadet anywhere in the world, if he'd been wearing his hat. That's why I was so startled when I looked out the window of the Luxembourg-Venise Express and saw my cadet standing there on the platform the young man Papa had teased me about, the
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$7.50
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Heller, Joseph Catch-22 Simon & Schuster 1961 paperback. BOOK COND: Used; Very Good. Book #or1156551. (filed under: Fiction ) *
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