The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee

Author:Chang-rae Lee [Lee, Chang-rae]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Koreans, Epic Literature, Refugee Children, Epic Fiction, General, Literary, Korean War, Historical, War & Military, Korean War; 1950-1953, Military, Fiction, Cultural Heritage, History
ISBN: 9781594485015
Google: TQ5rlfwgWyUC
Amazon: 1594485011
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2010-11-15T08:00:00+00:00

N I N E

A T T H E E N D O F H E R W R I T T E N S T A T E M E N T to the local constabulary relating her dealings with Nicholas, the antiquities dealer in London added a coda to her testimony: "Mr. De Nicole, or whoever he may turn out to be, was by every measure a charming, delightfully assured, extremely knowledgeable young man. Aside from the value of the stolen pieces, his departure will certainly prove a considerable loss to our firm."

So, June thought, someone else was missing him, too. That the sentiment was barely a month old was a cause for special heartache, and as June peered out the window glass from the back of the sedan Clines had rented for them, she realized that what she was feeling, despite the circumstance, was a deep flush of motherly pride. Delightfully assured.

The clean type of those words was a sudden salve to her fl esh, for otherwise she could hardly keep from crying out from the frightfully sharp pains in her joints and limbs. For the moment they seemed to be far-off alarums, urgent enough and real, though happening to some other unfortunate, dying woman. This dying woman, on the other hand, this one wearing a woolen skullcap and a green silk shawl wrapped snugly about her shoulders on a warm autumn evening, was in fact enjoying the first good day of the end of her life, and not even the jarring, potholed drive up the West Side Highway could call her back to her miserable bones. For she could believe that Nicholas was basically all right; that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with him; that no matter what crimes he'd committed he was essentially a promising, capable young man; that he needed, ironically, only to come back in from the world in order to thrive.

This was the mad logic of her illness, of course, and even as she understood it to be so, she took the same comfort and refuge in her thoughts of Nicholas as with the palliatives from her doctor, these new warm blankets of her life. Something had begun to happen to her body in the last weeks, and she recalled now what her doctor had warned of a month ago when she told him she was not going to see him anymore, that she was going away. Dr. Koenig said the pain would change and evolve, grow worse, much worse, and that eventually it would overwhelm her. She liked his frankness, even before she'd quit as his patient. When Dr. Koenig first informed her of the diagnosis of the stomach tumor she'd felt that horrid bleat arise in her throat, for she could tell by the grip of his unwavering stare that there was little hope for her. He wouldn't say that, of course, Dr. Koenig being famous for his aggressive, innovative techniques, but also for his utter refusal to relent, no matter the circumstance.

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.