Gilbert Sorrentino - The Abyss of Human Illusion

… Lux Radio Theater … The hallmark of this radio drama series was its presentation, as aural dramas, of the popular movies of the era. Lana Turner may well have starred in the radio version of The Postman Always Rings Twice.

… Bix Beiderbecke’s “Margie”… “Margie,” a popular song, with words by Benny Davis, music by Con Conrad and J. Russel Robinson, published in 1920. It was performed, perhaps most famously, by Eddie Cantor in the film, Margie. The Beiderbecke performance, here noted, was recorded in New York on September 21, 1928, by Bix Beiderbecke and his Gang. The personnel were: Beiderbecke, cornet, Bill Rank, trombone, Izzy Friedman, clarinet, Min Leibrook, bass saxophone, Roy Bargy, piano, and Lennie Hayton, ordinarily a pianist, on drums. Bix plays with his usual heartbreaking clarity of tone. It’s pleasant to think otherwise, but Martin Block would probably never had had Bix’s “Margie” on his playlist.

— XXIV —

… had he a wife … This may suggest that Vince once had a wife but no longer had one, or it may suggest nothing of the kind.

… next shopping trip … To the A&P or Bohack’s….

the favored cereal … In this case, Post Toasties, the General Foods Corporation’s apparent attempt at whimsy.

— XXV —

… sunbaked funereal places … E.g.: Las Vegas, NV; Palm Springs, CA; Phoenix, AZ; St. Augustine, FL; Santa Fe, NM; etc.

… an accounting ledger … Purchased at his local stationery store, Laverty & Son, on Eighth Avenue between Thirteenth and Fourteenth Streets in New York. The store no longer exists.

— XXVI —

… canned 3.2 beer from a case … The beer, from an Army beer hall, had an alcohol content of 3.2 %, and was slightly more potent than water.

… the beer hall … The beer hall in question was at Fort Hood, Texas; at the time — Spring 1952—THE home of the Second Armored Division (“Hell on Wheels”). No officers were anywhere in sight on this wholly uneventful day.

… one had Lone Star, the other Pearl … Two brands of beer that were and, taking into account various corporate acquisitions, nominally still are indigenous to Texas.

… It was Rosie! … “Rosie” was Marvin Rosenthal, a corporal with the Seventh Infantry Division; “Koenig” was Walter Koenig, a PFC from the same division.

… chickenshit motherfucker platoon sergeant … The reference is to SFC Luther Crittenden, also of the Seventh Division.

— XXVII —

… More stories … The reader may make his own list, and may be astonished to realize how long it finally is.

… Henry James … No writer’s antennae have ever been as good at detecting well-mannered social and sexual sadism.

— XXVIII —

… its rejection slip clipped … I have no idea if the New Yorker uses or used formal rejection slips.

… printed-out “stuff”… Steve thought the word “stuff” democratic and non-elite, it perhaps made him feel like Clifford Odets, although in any case the word seems somewhat out of place in connection with electrostatically transferred, heat and pressure-fused printed documents.

… in a writing workshop with Steve at the New School … “Writing for Publication” was the official title of the course.

— XXIX —

… admitted to the hospital immediately … The hospital was the Caledonia, located on Prospect Park South. It is now called the Caledonian Campus of the Brooklyn Hospital Center. The nurse’s aides wore plaid jumpers.

… he’d drive him in his car … the car was a 1951 Olds….

… lit one of his Lucky Strikes … By now, of course, in their wartime white package, the switch from OD being a great advertising coup — profit in patriotism.

— XXX —

… at his wife’s office … The office was the Kew Gardens Branch of Thermo-Fax Sales, a division of 3M.

… a gym or an aerobics class … Aerobics classes were virtually unknown in the fifties and sixties.

… three “really encouraging” letters … There were no letters, but he began to believe that he had been praised and encouraged by various flunkeys working at Thanatos, Cistern, Blackfriars Review, and, amazingly, The New Cadmean.

… down in the romantic Caribbean … Natives usually do not use the word “romantic” to describe that part of the world.

— XXXI —

… days of Juicy Fruit … The flavor of this chewing gum has no relation to any fruit known to man.

… and the Milano Restaurant … This restaurant persists in memory as being located on West Fortieth Street near Eighth Avenue.

… existent only in his mother’s stories … One of which was that his father had spent $1,000 for a cigar as they left the Milano: the implication was that this “transaction” was slightly illegitimate, perhaps even criminal.

… drunk on cheap whiskey … E.g., Wilson “That’s All,” Paul Jones, Schenley Silver Label, Fleischmann’s, Four Roses, Three Feathers.

… whom he always thought of, to be truthful, as a hambone…. Although he was a wonderfully demonic Mr. Hyde, an erotically charged fiend.

— XXXII —

… who lived in the apartment above his … Perhaps he had what used to be called a “club foot.”

… whose wife had died in misery … Cause of death unknown.

… whose children were callous … They were minimally attentive, but cold and distant; this may have had something to do with the fact that they believed he had little or no savings.

… lovely of face and figure … The phrase is not actually “written,” but lies at the side of the road.

… did not say what he thought … Let’s assume that he thought nothing at all.

— XXXIII —

… the book of poetry … Title: The Future of Eternity; the publisher was Knopf. The reviews compared the poems — famously — with those of Elizabeth Bishop, a bad sign.

… his street crusted over … This was in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where Colonial Road “becomes” Marine Avenue.

… that he’d never given up smoking … It was too late, anyway: he had developed lung cancer which had metastasized to his brain (these are some of the brands of cigarettes he smoked over some sixty years in rough chronological order: Wings, Twenty Grand, Sweet Caporal, Old Gold, Philip Morris, Pall Mall, Herbert Tareyton, Lucky Strikes, Camel, Gauloises, Marlboro Lights, Camel Filters).

— XXXIV —

… into the mountains … The mountains are easier to imagine than the sea, which almost always confounds memory.

… amusement park … Cf. Steeplechase, Luna Park, Dreamland.

… blew her skirt up … This was one of the cruder amusements at Steeplechase in the 1940s.

… the Big Lasso … This was a ride much like the Whip — rough and unsubtle.

… his convertible … A 1948 Buick.

… real ferryboats once made regular runs … The boats were small and painted a curiously drab olive green.

… or so Boys’ Life reported … In a piece by Carl Olssen, “Temptation in the Woods.”

… “My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer” … Rheingold beer was brewed in Brooklyn, NY, and was famous for its Miss Subways monthly displays in subways, cars, and buses.

… Flagg Brothers … These shoes were highly popular among high school boys ca. 1945–1947. They had to be dyed cordovan or were considered beneath contempt and unwearable.