"I bet
he had the way he was going to do it all planned
out
"I don't doubt it," I said"What do you think
he'll do now?"
"I don't know
"Maybe I better call him
"Maybe you better notMaybe finding out we talked
would push him right over the edge With a touch
of malice she added, "Then you'll be the one
losing sleep
It was a possibility I hadn't thought of, but she
had a pointTom and Wireman were alike in one way:
both needed help and I couldn't drag them to it
An old bon mot bounced into my head, maybe apropos,
maybe not: you can lead a whore to culture, but
361
you can't make her thinkMaybe coco chanel jewelry Wireman could tell
me who had said it
"So how did you know he meant to kill himself?"
she asked"I want to know, and by God you're
going to tell me before I hang upI did my part
and you're going to tell me
There it was, the question she hadn't asked before;
she'd been too fixated on how I'd found out about
her and Tom in the first placeWell, Wireman
wasn't the only one with sayings; my father had a
few, as wellOne was, when a lie won't suffice,
the truth will have to do
"Since the accident, I've been painting," I said
"So?"
I told her about the sketch I'd drawn of her, Max
from Palm Desert, and Tom chanel pearls RileyAbout some of my
Internet explorations into the world of phantom
limb phenomenaAnd about seeing Tom Riley
standing at the head of the stairs in what I
supposed was now my studio, naked except for his
pajama pants, one eye gone, replaced by a socket
filled with congealed gore
362
When I finished, there was a long silenceAt last she said, in a new and
cautious voice: "Do you really believe that, Edgar
- any of it?"
"Wireman, the guy from down the beach I
stopped, infuriated in spite of myselfAnd not
because I didn't have any words
Was I going to tell her the guy from down the
beach was an occasional vintage rolex watch telepath, so he believed
me?
"What about the guy from down the beach, Edgar?"
Her voice was calm and softI recognized it from
the first month or so after my accidentIt was
her Edgar's-Going-Section-Eight voice
"You need to call DrKamen and tell him about
this new idea of yours," she said"This idea that
you're psychicDon't e-mail him, call himNot to
mention frustrated and pissed off
"All right what?"
"All right, I'm hearing youYou're coming in loud
and clearNo misunderstandings whatsoeverPerish
363
the goddam thoughtAll I wanted was to save Tom
Riley's life
To that she had no answerAnd no vintage tank watch rational
explanation for what I had known about Tom, either
So that was where we left itMy thought as I hung
up the phone was No good deed goes unpunished
Maybe it was hers, too
vi
I felt angry and lostThe dank, dreary weather
didn't helpI tried to paint and couldn'tI went
downstairs, took up one of my sketch-pads, and
found myself reduced to the sort of doodles I'd
done in my other life while taking phone calls:
cartoon shmoos with big earsI was about to toss
the pad aside in disgust when the phone rang
"Are you coming this afternoon?" he asked
"I thought maybe with the rain-"
"I planned on creeping down in the replica pasha cartier ca

I could stay 2 or 3 days
Please say yes! Also I could bring my prezzies
instead of mailing themI have some special news
Did I think about it, or only consult the ticking
of instinct? I can't rememberMaybe it was
neitherMaybe the only thing that mattered was
that I wanted to see herIn any case, I replied
almost at once
EFree19 to ifsogirl88
9:17 AM
December 23
Ilse: Come ahead! Finalize your arrangements and
I'll meet you with Jack Cantori, who happens to be
my own Christmas ElfI hope you will like my
house, which I call Big PinkOne thing:
do not do this w/o your mother's knowledge

. . Twenty-seven years ago I was fortunate enough to be associated with the publication of John Dos Passos' Three Soldiers. In no year since have I felt the same surge of excitement for a war novel -- not until the manuscript of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead was readied for publication.
There is no direct parallel between the two books. The world has changed and toughened since Dos Passos wrote. The Naked and the Dead is a tougher book, one that reflects the variables that time and change have introduced. But, like its distinguished predecessor, Norman Mailer's book is essentially the story of men themselves rather than of their sometimes purposeless fighting. These men who tear their hearts out trying to capture an island from the Japanese are the product of the years they have lived. They have been formed by their wives, their sweethearts, their farms, their jobs, their colleges. To each, war has been an activating agent.
I believe you will never forget these men -- frightened men, sometimes obscene, humorous, sick, scabrous, full of yearning for home as it was, or home as it seems in memory. They are men in war, but like most of us, they do not know where they are going; they know only their own past.
Because I believe The Naked and the Dead is a great novel I can say that if you have read Thomas Boyd's Through the Wheat, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, or Three Soldiers, you cannot afford to pass by this astonishing performance by a young man who at twenty-five knows more about the core of man than many a writer of twice his years.
Stanley W. Rinehart Jr.
Rinehart

. . Twenty-seven years ago I was fortunate enough to be associated with the publication of John Dos Passos' Three Soldiers. In no year since have I felt the same surge of excitement for a war novel -- not until the manuscript of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead was readied for publication.
There is no direct parallel between the two books. The world has changed and toughened since Dos Passos wrote. The Naked and the Dead is a tougher book, one that reflects the variables that time and change have introduced. But, like its distinguished predecessor, Norman Mailer's book is essentially the story of men themselves rather than of their sometimes purposeless fighting. These men who tear their hearts out trying to capture an island from the Japanese are the product of the years they have lived. They have been formed by their wives, their sweethearts, their farms, their jobs, their colleges. To each, war has been an activating agent.
I believe you will never forget these men -- frightened men, sometimes obscene, humorous, sick, scabrous, full of yearning for home as it was, or home as it seems in memory. They are men in war, but like most of us, they do not know where they are going; they know only their own past.
Because I believe The Naked and the Dead is a great novel I can say that if you have read Thomas Boyd's Through the Wheat, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, or Three Soldiers, you cannot afford to pass by this astonishing performance by a young man who at twenty-five knows more about the core of man than many a writer of twice his years.
Stanley W. Rinehart Jr.
Rinehart

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