A small glass of ginger ale. A small glass mind you..

I can promise little beyond office supplies in the way of presents, but here's my quote:

I remained very still for some minutes, holding my breath for long intervls, trying to die. Then, in a sudden rage, I hurled my pillow across the room and beat the mattress with my fists: it was over. All was at an end except my own miserable life, which will be gone soon enough.

I don't remember that from the book. What page is it on? Or is that one of the quotes written on a piece of cardboard in the brother's room?

I'm not busting your chops, I'm just wondering if I wasn't clear about this game. You gotta quote from the book I'M quoting. And I will send the presents. You post a quote and I send YOU something.

"As always, my passes at omniscience are absurd, but you, of all people, should be polite to the part of me that comes out merely clever."

Ahhh... is clear now:

Then, like so many people, who, perhaps, ought to be issued only a very probational pass to meet trains, he tried to empty his face of all expression that might quite simply, perhaps even beautifully, reveal how he felt about the arriving person.

That is one of the most beautiful lines in that book. Good choice. Thank you.

"...quite simply, perhaps even beautifully..."

That "very" before "probational" is a great example of what makes this author just sing to me. I love this book.

(I still need your address! You get an especially fine prize/present.)

Ah, nice! That's from the letter he's reading in the bathtub?

So whats the book since somebody already won? Or is it a ongoing thing for everyone and you have a limited supply of gifts to chuck off to people.

None of the above.

EDIT: Please don't start demanding rules and guidelines and closure. Thanks.

Do I normally do that?

*shrugs* I guess so.

Does he? I remember that it is the four year old letter that ________ had sent, but I can't remember anything about a tub. I'll go back and re-read that part when I feel like doing something productive.

*EDIT* I'm surprised more people aren't getting this one. It's a classic.

Nah, just this is this quiet corner, kind of musing about a favorite book. So, I don't want to make rules and stuff or have a deadline or name the book. Maybe it will get a couple of posts every few months and I send out little things and maybe people return and post more quotes. I just LOVE this book. I want it to have this secret corner on the cult.

Yes, it's that four year letter that _______sent and yes, _____ is in the tub rereading it.

Then the mom comes in with her crazy bathrobe with the extra pockets sewn on.

"In this distinctly Manhattanesque locale, insert name was (from an undeniably hoyden point of view) a rather refreshing eyesore."

for the love of god tell me what this book is. all mine are all used up; i need a new one. what is this?

Seriously Mirk. I think I'm more annoyed with the fact that I can't figure it out, so it's obvious that I haven't read the book... I don't mind not being in the "loop." I like the quotes though.

Really, though, what book is this?
It seems really interesting and I'd like to read it.

Just so the "presentee's" know. I haven't mailed out prizes yet. I will Friday or Saturday. I've been really busy.

This thread is still open for quotes!

If you want to know which book it is, just PM, me. Sheesh!

I still have the book from oh so many years ago, back when I couldn't get through it, and now...I'm absolutely loving it.

"They're not real poets. They're just people that write poems that get published and anthologized all over the place, but they're not poets."

Prizes FINALLY went out yesterday to everyone except Adelheid. (I need you address girrl!)

This thread is still open. The prizes are a little smaller, things like a bottle of hot sauce and a book off my shelf, but' c'mon, this is a great book!

Damn, I reread that quote over and over. I'm almost positive I've read that book before now. But I read so many books that I can't think of what it is. In fact I remember trying to steal some of that style for my own writing. The way that he loses himself. I liked that. I wish I could remember. I really need some hot sauce. jk

I've been waiting for Stoyan to find this thread..and now he's looking at it online.

Hey I just read your signature in another thread and I was like "wait a minute - I know that prase!" so yeah, I'm glad you made this fine thread about one of my favorit books!

Here's a quote, though I think this book is far more unquotable than many other books, because it's like taking a screenshot from the best movie ever made - it won't possibly convey the greatness of it when taken out of it's organic context. But anyway:

"If you're a poet, you do something beautiful. I mean you're supposed to leave something beautiful after you get off the page and everything. The ones you're talking about don't leave a single, solitary thing beautiful. All that maybe the slightly better ones do is sort of get inside your head and leave some thing there, but just because they do , just because they know how to leave some thing, it doesn't have to be a poem , for heaven's sake."

Oh man as I was flipping through the book's pages now in search of a quote I was reminded how amazing it is. I have to re-reread again soon. This book, and the author's other books always just give me a feeling of "everything's alright" when I read them. Truly my favorites.

I was leafing through the book at a bookstore and my sister said that line "a small glass, mind you" when she saw me looking at it.

I know what you mean about the book being almost unquotable because there so many quotable things. But also how it all flows and comes together. You really do have to read the whole book to see how astonishgly great it is. Like how he can't move out of NY because he got hit by a car, on the same street corner. I'm so glad that no one has posted the end, the bit about the "...lady" because it's one of the best quotes, but it would ruin the book for someone that decides to get the book based on the quotes in this thread.

You chose a beautiful one, Stoyan. Thank you. .

Another favorite:

I'll tell you one thing, name . One thing I know. And don't get upset. It isn't anything bad. But if it's the religious life you want, you ought to know that you are missing out on every single religious action thats going on around this house. You don't even have sense enough to drink when somebody brings you a cup of consecrated chicken soup-which is the only kind of chicken soup [Mother] ever brings to to anybody in this madhouse. So just tell me, just tell me, buddy. Even if you went out and searched the whole world for a master-some guru, some holy man-to tell you how to say your [insert] prayer properly, what good would it do to you? How in hell are you going to recognize a legitimate holy man when you see one if you don't even know a cup of consecrated chicken soup when it's right in front of your nose?

Yay! I was searching for the consecrated chicken soup quote as well but couldn't find it! Thank you for posting it

Nice! I've always loved how well he makes that point about how to recognize, to see the sacred in daily life.. He always uses italics so judiciously. Genius.

beautiful thread you've got here, Mirka. glad to see you're still spreading the good word. I mainly stopped in to say something about the coming lockdown intensive, suffered temporary brain cloud and stumbled over to book forum. Too bad I'm not at my desk, as I can't reach for a copy of this book.. But it's one of my top five, with a bullet. I've got a pristine first edition that my wife gave me as wedding gift, a few hours before saying "I do" in front of half of creation. That's love, people.
and I have to say, this one has survived in that top five position since my first read, which must be twenty years ago, hell.. make that 25 goddamn years. I'm pretty sure I picked this up in the 9th grade, and have read it easily twenty or thirty times.. only two or three other books I can say that about... I even had phineas poe quote from this book, at one point in Hell's Half.. maybe he doesn't exactly quote it, but compares Molly to the female lead? the way she moves her lips, and how the asshole she's dating is saying that "the big thing about Flaubert is he lacks testicularity."

no one gives a shit about my geezer rememberings, I know.. The point of the thread is the book at hand.

maybe when I get home I'll pull it down and do this thread justice, or try. wouldn't be difficult.. with this book, you can flip it open and close your eyes, stick a pin in at random and you're eyeballin' a line touched with fucking fairy dust..

but the lines I quote most often in day to day survival are as follows.

somebody asks me if I'd rec a movie or TV show, say '24,' something that's tight and skillfully written but is ultimately disposable and forgettable, and doesn't stick with you or change you, right.. the answer: "...yeah, '24' is all right.. though, it's not something you can't watch while you're cutting your toenails."

if I'm in the bathroom trying to shave or gather my thoughts or find the Vicodin I stashed after that root canal last year, and my wife crashes in to ask me a question, or a series of questions, that I have no useful answer for and might have waited until I exit the bathroom, there's no better line than: "you know, it's not often that we get visitors to our little chapel, but when we do, we like to make them feel at home."

to be used cautiously, when you suspect the person who harassed you into explaining something at length and against your will has fallen asleep: "Are you even listening to me, you fat old Druid?"

when bored or frustrated by the other humans: "...all my black mollies are dead."

for the small moments of redemption: "I like the tangerine."

and to this day, when I'm traveling alone and there's a little girl in the seat by the window, if she turns to look at me, I hear in my head: "the girl in the seat beside me/ turned her doll's head/ to look at me."

and there are few compliments you can give a friend better than: "..there's no one I'd rather send to look for horses in my 'stead."

thanks again, Mirk.. you put a smile on my face. Now let's have a look at that catchy thread "kmj is utter trash." Where the hell is Anne Rice, when you need her to go medieval on some disgruntled readers..

godspeed,
-wcb

ps.. think that doll's line may be from the next book, or from the letter he's reading in the bath.

It was like running into an old and valued friend, when I read that bit in Hell’s Half. Thank you. I have a great gift story regarding the author, also. The first time I went to Europe, the friend that dropped me at the airport pushed a manilla envelope in my hands and said “to read on the plane.”. She’d gone to the library and dug up on microfiche all his uncollected stories and copied them for me. That’s still stands out as one of the most personal and thoughtful and insightful gifts that I’ve ever received.

The tangerine, the chicken soup, Carole Lombard..

"In a way, I sorta like Mr. Sage {sic} too. Everything he owns is the best- his overcoat, his two cabin cruiser, his son’s grades at Harvard, his electric razor, every thing. He took me to dinner once and stopped me in the driveway to ask if I remembered “the late Carole Lombard in the movies.’ He warned me I’d get a shock when I met his wife, she was such a dead ringer for Carole Lombard. I suppose I’ll like him for that until I die. His wife turned out to be a real bosomy, Persian looking Blonde.

…Yes {she} repeated- pale, but beaming, and apparently fated too, to like Mr Sage till death.”

That one, yes.

I have one that just springs to mind when people whine about being sick and it’s not life threatening: “Anybody over sixteen without an ulcer’s a goddam spy.

oh yeah…"the goddam unskilled laughter from the fifth row…”

..”-God knows it’s depressing. I’m not saying it isn’t. But that’s none of your business, really. That’s none of your business [name]. An artist’s only concern is is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.

Ignore the 5th row. Your work speaks for itself.

It's from the letter in the tub. Take my word for it, I had eleventeen dolls as a child. (Lisa, Laura, Magda, John/Jane, Puppet, Girl Texas, Girl Montana, Ramona, Monkey, damn, the last two escape me.)

Nice to hear from you, Chris. *WAITING, for November and the release of the next one, Godspeed.

"It never rains but it pours."

Simple, but I like it.

you know what? now I don't even wantto know what book it is
so there!

This is back on through December 15 when I mail out secret santa so I can do it all at once.

Oh man, I remember seeing this thread. Right after I bought this book, too. Just a wonderful read, the author's best, I think. Though, it's one of those I constantly shove in my friends' faces, so one of them has my copy. Shall return with a quote soon.

Nice! It really is one of those books that you shove in people's faces. I'm even doing it on the internet!

I'm looking forward to your quote.

I should have said, I've been driveling about this book for years! haha, Bess!

"For some minutes, before she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep, she just lay quiet, smiling at the ceiling"

maybe that's a cop-out. but when i got to this point, i was stepping off the bus from uni and it was starting to rain, and i stood and finished the last few pages, covering the book with my jacket, and when i finished i breathed out a beautiful, steamy breath and walked home in the rain with a smile on my face.

and, thanks for the link, Mirka. Lovely thread. I loved reading WCB's post. it made me smile how much he authentically, overtly loves this book.

Thanks for posting, Matt! That is a beautiful line and I like how you describe finishing the book protecting it from the rain.

I've read this book so many times. I used to believe it cured the flu! Whenever I got sick, I'd order a pizza, get several little glass bottles of ginger-ale and reread it. By the time I finished the book and pizza with bouts of feverish sleep, I'd be well again.

that's so sweet. i have only read it once

but i'm sure i'll re-read it soon. seriously, it floored me. i'm still trying to put my finger on what it was. ever single damn sentence. maybe that's what it was.

probably too long to quote, but i love that section at the beginning when [insert name] and [insert name] are eating and he/she calls he/she a "section man" and then hammers he/she and then says something along the lines of "i'm sorry. i've just been feeling so destructive all week. i'm awful."

i loved that bit.

hmmm, i wonder if Pete's figured it out yet. haha

Just tell me the damn book already!

Actually I got so frustrated - I PM'ed Mirka and threatened her. lol