Letter From Majorca (2012) J. D. Daniels Let’s suppose you are a serious person, or you transmit to yourself certain conventional signals of a sort of seriousness: you reread Tacitus, you attempt to reread Proust but it can’t be done, you listen to Bartók and … Continue readingLetter From Majorca II

Total Eclipse (1982)By Annie Dillard It had been like dying, that sliding down the mountain pass. It had been like the death of someone, irrational, that sliding down the mountain pass and into the region of dread. It was like slipping into fever, or falling … Continue readingTotal Eclipse

Keeper Of The Flame (2013) By Matthew Volmer On Thanksgiving my father asked me if I wanted to visit the Nazi. That’s what my father—a dentist to whom the Nazi had entrusted the care of his teeth—called him, what he’d always called him: “The Nazi.” … Continue readingKeeper Of The Flame

Thanksgiving In Mongolia (2013) By Ariel Levy My favorite game when I was a child was Mummy and Explorer. My father and I would trade off roles: one of us had to lie very still with eyes closed and arms crossed over the chest, and the … Continue readingThanksgiving In Mongolia

The Man At The River (2014) By Dave Eggers There is an American sitting by a narrow caramel-coloured river in South Sudan. His Sudanese friend, ten years his junior, has brought him to the area, and they have been touring around on bicycles, riding on … Continue readingThe Man At The River

Goodbye to All That (1967)  By Joan Didion  How many miles to Babylon? Three score miles and and ten— Can I get there by candlelight? Yes, and back again— If your feet are nimble and light You can get there by candlelight.  It is easy … Continue readingGoodbye to All That