The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump. Essays and Reportage, 1994-2016 by Amis Martin

Author:Amis, Martin [Amis, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2017-09-20T21:00:00+00:00

Still jogging on the spot, the young man demurs:

‘You can’t be sure, can you? … All right, we’re looking at a woman in a terrible stricken state,’ he said. ‘But I don’t see a common-law husband, I don’t see a separation, and I don’t see a court order.’

As it happens, the runner is right (‘It was a stranger,’ a policeman later confirms). But he doesn’t disabuse the spooked woman, allowing her to cleave to her consoling fiction. ‘It was definitely the father,’ he tells her as he finishes his run. ‘You had it just about totally right.’

This is a recurrent itch in DeLillo – the need to flesh out and piece together the half-glimpsed lives of others. In ‘Midnight in Dostoevsky’ (2009), two solemn young pedants, Todd and Robby, slouch around a wintry upstate campus. On one of their ponderous rambles, they see a middle-aged woman unloading grocery bags onto a baby stroller:

‘What’s her name?’

‘Isabel’, I said.

‘Be serious. We’re serious people. What’s her name?’

‘Okay, what’s her name?’

‘Her name is Mary Frances. Listen to me,’ he whispered. ‘Mar-y Fran-ces. Never just Mary.’

‘Okay, maybe.’

‘Where the hell do you get Isabel?’

He showed mock concern, placing a hand on my shoulder.

‘I don’t know. Isabel’s her sister. They’re identical twins. Isabel’s the alcoholic twin. But you’re missing the central questions.’

‘No, I’m not. Where’s the baby that goes with the stroller? Whose baby is it?’ he said. ‘What’s the baby’s name?’

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