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Full Description
In his latest essay collection, Thomas Beller trains his piercing literary eye on how a single, seismic event indelibly shapes the trajectory of the common and mundane experiences of one's life. Weaving together a charming set of autobiographical stories, Beller interrogates the randomness and contingencies that separate sadness from joy, death from life. His father escaped the Nazis, only to die in America from cancer when Beller was nine years old. Beller measures how his loss impacted his life as the father of two young children and became a catalyst for understanding and an ever-present sorrow. At the same time, ordinary moments - from retrieving an iPod from the subway tracks or encountering the police at a Kinks concert to observing his young tutued ballerina daughter at a gas station - lead to instances of penetrating insight, self-deprecation, and flashes of humor. Degas at the Gas Station presents an endearing and bracingly honest portrait of the author as an ever-curious observer of the mysteries and profundities of everyday life.
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: The Misunderstandings 1
The Frozen River, Part I 15
iPod on the Tracks 18
The Stuff of Life 21
The Bad News Bears and Breaking Away 26
The Kinks at the Garden 34
The Lost Glove 46
On Moving Out 49
Falling Out with Father Figures 66
The Laundry Room 71
Us and Them 77
The Topographical Soul 85
Negative Space 89
The Purple Krama 99
2. The Rights
Loose Teeth 107
Degas at the Gas Station 111
Thanksgiving Panic 115
The Pink Comma 121
How I Found My iPhone in New Orleans 127
The Two-Thousand-Dollar Popsicle 134
On Finding a Spot 140
Saying Goodbye to Now 146
Remembrance of Snows Past 151
Repeat, Memory 160
The Perils of Precocity 164
Drain You 169
Her Party 173
Napoleon on the Back Stairs 178
The Egg Cream in Mid-Manhattan, 1982 186
Somebody's Mother Is Waiting in the Lobby 197
The Time My Band Opened for Blur 203
Death of a Movie Theater 209
A Few Words About Jerry Stiller 216
Loitering with Intent at Manet/Degas 220
The Rights 226
Evacuation 237
The Frozen River (Reprise) 243
Index 265
