“Do like it,” I say and laugh and hold out both hands to him. “I’ve decided to give up trying to write poetry.” He really should not look so pleased.
“Well, in that case—” he says and pours a glass for himself. “Isn’t that jacket new?”
“No, it’s old. It’s as old as the hills.”
“It’s hideous,” he says. He is right; perhaps seventeen years ago it was not so coy as it is now. I turn back to the stuck clock for a split second and during it I think, my God, Jew or not he was a Nazi; and then I think, what did Nazi mean when I was twenty? So, finding no reason for preserving my guilt, I watch it give up the ghost. Tomorrow at this time we will be in Bermuda.
“I know it’s hideous,” I say. “But Nan won’t know it is.”
Books by Jean Stafford
Boston Adventure
The Mountain Lion
Children Are Bored on Sunday
The Catherine Wheel
Elephi, the Cat with a High I.Q.
The Interior Castle (collection)
Bad Characters
Jean Stafford (1915-79) was the author of three novels as well as several children’s and nonfiction books. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1970. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Author’s Note
Bad Characters
The End of a Career
A Reasonable Facsimile
In the Zoo
Cops and Robbers
The Liberation
The Captain’s Gift
A Reading Problem
Caveat Emptor
A Winter’s Tale
About the Author
Copyright
FIRST PRINTING
Copyright © 1946, 1953, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1964 by Jean Stafford
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eISBN 9781466896581
First eBook edition: November 2016