Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer

Author:Jeremy Mercer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2011-10-17T04:00:00+00:00

That evening, there was a reading at the bookstore, so after closing the antiquarian room, I found a seat among the crowd. An Irish woman was going to recite Joyce and Wilde while performing an erotic dance routine, and the room was brimming with curious eyes.

Readings have been organized at the bookstore since the doors first opened and everyone from William Saroyan to William Styron has held literary court in the upstairs library. Shakespeare and Company’s reputation for attracting quality readers and discerning ears was once so great that in Mordecai Richler’s Barney’s Version, a young writer is humiliated when he fails to impress the bookstore audience. But as this Irish woman careened lewdly around the library, screeching lines from Finnegans Wake, I suspected there might have been an easing of standards since the hallowed days when Ginsberg and Corso performed regularly at the store.

After an uncomfortable moment where the audience sat unsure whether to applaud, the show was declared over. The room quickly cleared, but a woman with long braids and olive complexion stayed behind and sat with Ablimit near the window. She had dark hollows for eyes, and I found myself wondering where the line was between her pupil and iris.

Ablimit helpfully introduced us, which somewhat made up for my gaping. The woman smiled hello, but my tongue was jelly. Slurring some excuse about a bathroom and a book, I fled the room. This was Nadia, the newest resident of Shakespeare and Company.

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