The Man With the Heart in the Highlands and other stories by William Saroyan

Author:William Saroyan [Saroyan, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: american, fiction, literature, short stories
Publisher: Dell
Published: 1967-12-31T20:00:00+00:00

The Horses and the Sea

When jobs were hard to get in San Francisco, after making the rounds of the employment agencies, I used to go to the joints on Third Street to play rummy and hope to win a little money. It was a struggle, but sometimes I did in fact win half a dollar or a dollar, which in those days was a lot of money and made a lot of difference. This is a story out of those days. When I began to think about the writing of these headnotes, I decided I would make a point of saying that in my opinion a story is no good if and when I came to such a story. I believe that this is such a story. The reason I don't think it's any good is that I remember clearly that, even though it is out of real and true material, out of experience I knew, while I was writing the story I didn't believe in the usage I was making of the material, which was heavy and meticulous and not really my kind of writing. It should have been a good story, but perhaps the reader will believe I am mistaken. (Not impossible, by any means.)

Drinking beer in The Kentucky on Third Street, I met a fellow named Drew, father English, mother Italian, and he said he had just got off the boat, straight from Australia, assistant engineer. He was a tall dark half-breed with a solid chin and a long horsey face. Like most seamen ashore, he seemed to be in a daze, and although he'd hear something I'd say, he wouldn't understand the meaning immediately. It would take him thirty seconds or maybe a little longer to make out what I was talking about. It looked as if he had something important on his mind, but in reality he was only becoming adjusted to land, to the city, and what was going on. In reality he still had the sea in him and it was taking him time to get the land back into his brain. He wasn't liking it, either: it wasn't pleasing him very much. He had gone to sea when he was fourteen and, on and off, man and boy, he had been to sea ever since. He was nearing his fortieth year, but appeared to be in his middle twenties: it is like this with some seamen: they lead a hard life, they drink, they go away in ships, they walk in the streets of alien cities, they do a lot of swift living, and yet they keep young. Drew was one of these men, and we were drinking beer together, talking.

We got to be friends casually, the way it happens in saloons, and Drew began to talk about himself, how it had been with him from the beginning, feeling restless, dreaming of cities, wanting to walk in them, and all that. Regular Joseph Conrad stuff, a young fellow from inland longing for the sea.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.