by P. F. Kluge
A moonlit night. A sea like a lake, though we were miles above the bottom of it. In the distance, an island. A landing tower at the airport, red-tipped in the night, and the glint of traffic on Marine Drive. Chester and Jimmy were at the helm. Then Chester left him there and walked over to me.
“They didn’t want you to miss this night,” he said. “They thought it was important.”
“Why?”
“Over here, Biggest Elvis,” Whitney said. She led me to the railing, put me against it, fixing my arm on either side. “Is all right?”
“Yes.”
Then Christina brought Chester over and stood him next to me. She stood back and looked the two of us over. “That’s good.”
Elvira was next, taking Dude’s hand and bringing him over, into the picture. The three Elvises.
“A reunion,” Chester said.
“We are wanting to see you together again,” Whitney said.
“Next time is … who knows? People like us …” Elvira didn’t finish her sentence.
“Now or never,” Whitney said. Actually she tried to sing it. Then she stopped and we were there, just there, we three under the stars and above the deepest possible sea, in the middle of another perfect moment that wouldn’t last but we would take it, anyway. Sea and islands all around us. That where-in-the-world feeling. That sense of life maybe working out.
“Does anybody have a camera?” Chester asked. “With a flash?”
“Man, I hate those red-eye pictures.”
“Dude, there’s this new kind,” Chester explained.
Christina came back from down below, shrugged. “No camera.”
“Well …”
“Just stand there a little bit,” Whitney pleaded. “Just a little bit more.”
“Yes,” Christina urged. “Please.”
“It’s important,” Elvira said.
“Why?” I asked. “If there’s no camera?”
“I know, no camera,” Whitney said. “But I’m wanting to remember.”
Also Available from The Overlook Press
Gone Tomorrow
978-1-59020-259-3
In Kluge’s (Eddie and the Cruisers) thoughtful new novel, Mark May, a young professor at an Ohio college, is surprised to be named the literary executor of a recently deceased colleague he barely knew. George Canaris was a literary sensation in the 1960s, but hadn’t published anything in 30 years. At the time of his death, he was rumored to be working on his magnum opus, but there is doubt the manuscript exists. While inspecting the dead man’s house, Mark finds the manuscript of Canaris’s memoir, which provides insight into the man and his work, and even if Mark has doubts about its veracity, it pushes him to arrive at some important decisions about his own life. The novel is suffused with Kluge’s obvious affection for books, and has some cleverly aphoristic things to say about the joys of teaching, the pitfalls of academic infighting and the tragedy of artistic expectations left unfulfilled. Although not as witty or biting as Kingsley Amis’s academy fiction, this novel combines elements of Citizen Kane and Goodbye, Mr. Chips for a satisfying resolution.
—Publishers Weekly
Also Available from The Overlook Press
Eddie and the Cruisers
978-1-59020-094-0
“An excellently crafted book. The dialogue is sharp, the book is packed with exquisite description and a surprise ending.”
—Sunday Journal and Star
“Eddie and the Cruisers seems at first glance to be only a smartly written novel about nostalgia for the music of the late 1950s. It quickly proves, however, to be A remarkably good suspense story, full of vivid characters and some hilarious dialogue.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Also Available from The Overlook Press
Walking English
978-1-59020-263-0
“In a conversational style that includes plenty of quirky facts, Crystal captures the ‘exploratory, seductive, teasing, quirky, tantalizing nature of language study,’ and in doing so illuminates the fascinating world of words in which we live.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Peels back the layers of history compressed into the [names] he encounters or just thinks of along the way—names of places, mainly, but also of abbots, churches, pubs and locomotives … Like passing the afternoon with a knowledgeable uncle.”
—Wall Street Journal
“Every page of Crystal’s book contains some linguistic curiosity or flight of fancy.”
—Financial Times