Picador-Farrar

he had never hved in a house and now, seeing the thing, she was no longer sure she wanted to. It was the right house, she knew it was. It was as he had described. She shielded her eyes as she drove the long slope, her truck jolting and bucking as she approached. The bottomland yawned into view and...

i!I. On a temperate stormy nightr-.'ILast December a woman entered my apartment who looked ex-actly like my wife. This woman casually closed the door behind her. In an oversized pale blue purseRema's purseshe was carrying a russet puppy. I did not know the puppy. And the real Rema, she doesn't...

HIGH SPEEDS That November I'm nine and stealing: candy from the supermarket; toys from the dime store; books from the bookstore. And not Curious George and the Bad Touch or Tales of a Fourth Grade Fuck-Up, though I am in fourth grade, and fiicked-up. I'm too smart for those books, too smart for...

Crossing into middle age, a successful writer is expected to enter his custodial phase, in which he services and maintains his prior accomplishments. Is that really what he was agreeing to now? The thought vexed Alexander too much for him to continue answering either of the letters lying open on...

One people I love know how to get on with their lives. In evidence: A girlfriend from elementary school was getting married. Day after tomorrow, Plaza Hotel. The invitation was piped in copper and rice, maybe because the bride was Indian. It promised a groom on horseback. This I'd like to see. I...

There were no books when I was a boy. Books were hardly accessible, yet there were some books. That is why I did not develop literary taste. I read what I found and it was for fun. You read mostly for idle pleasure. I did not read for fun, nor was I cultivating my mind. I cannot imagine...

Introduction to the Paperback Edition Why go through all the trouble of writing a second expanded and updated version of The World Is Flat only a year after the first expanded version was published and a mere two years after the original? I can offer a very brief answer: because I could and...