Monday, March 31, 2014

The Juke Joint King of the Mississippi Hills

The Juke Joint King of the Mississippi Hills
The Raucous Reign of Tillman Branch
Janice Branch Tracy
The History Press
March, 2014

Idgie Says: 
This is a true story, with a detailed telling of Mississippi history during the years involved.   This is the story of the author's bootlegger side of the family.  It is a family historical memoir but it's not dry in the telling, as books such as this often can be.  The story is told in a style to be of interest to someone outside of the family and filled with prohibition tales and historical facts.  It also comes loaded with fantastic photographs starting from the early 1900s.   

It's a slim book, topping out at 112 pages, then another 30 or so pages of reference material and court transcriptions.  

This novel does tell a family history, but also shares a great view of time and place during these tumultuous Mississippi years.


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Book Description:
In the swamps and juke joints of Holmes County, Mississippi, Edward Tillman Branch built his empire. Tillman’s clubs were legendary. Moonshine flowed as patrons enjoyed craps games and well-know blues acts. Across from his Goodman establishment, prostitutes in a trysting trailer entertained men, including the married Tillman himself. A threat to law enforcement and anyone who crossed his path, Branch rose from modest beginnings to become the ruler of a treacherous kingdom in the hills that became his own end. Author Janice Branch Tracy reveals the man behind the story and the path that led him to become what Honeyboy Edwards referred to in his autobiography as the “baddest white man in Mississippi.”

Click HERE for Preview 

Notes from the author:
"Tillman, my first cousin, three times removed, and a man I never met, was shot and killed by a black man at a juke joint he owned just south of Goodman, Mississippi. The Juke Joint King of the Mississippi Hills is part regional history, mixed with a little genealogy, and is blended with the elements of a true crime that occurred in early 1963."

Friday, March 28, 2014

Leaving China - An Artist Paints his WWII Childhood

Leaving China
Story and Illustrations by James McMullan
Algonquin Young Reader
March 2013

Idgie Says:
This is an incredibly interesting book that Algonquin has added to their YA series.  As I have said before, their YA books contain no fluff - all the books they publish have real meaty content that you can chew on for a while.  

Now, this is a beautifully written story - each page and illustration is one chapter.  So for the short term attention readers this is perfectly set up.  But I'm rather torn with the Young Reader labeling.  

Reason being that not only is a lot of the subject matter very adult - depression, infanticide, war, and death, but it also speaks in ways that are perhaps interesting to an adult but not a young one.  There tends to be very little interest by a young reader about the obvious social and lifestyle differences in siblings via their home decor.  The language is also high level and the reader needs to have an excellent vocabulary.  Granted - this is a wonderful chance for the young reader to learn these new words. 

Basically, what I'm saying is that it is a good book with a strong story, but I don't feel it's for casual young reader - more for the accelerated student.  There is a link below for excerpts to get a feel for the book.

Book Description:
A memoir in paintings and words by internationally acclaimed illustrator, author, and teacher James McMullan.

“It is this dreamlike quality of my memories that I wanted to capture in some way in the paintings that accompany the text--to suggest in the images that the events occurred a long time ago in a simpler yet more exotic world, and that the players in that world, including me, are at a distance.”

Artist James McMullan’s work has appeared in the pages of virtually every American magazine, on the posters for more than seventy Lincoln Center theater productions, and in bestselling picture books. Now, in a unique memoir comprising more than fifty short essays and illustrations, the artist explores how his early childhood in China and wartime journeys with his mother influenced his whole life, especially his painting and illustration.

James McMullan was born in Tsingtao, North China, in 1934, the grandson of missionaries who settled there. As a little boy, Jim took for granted a privileged life of household servants, rickshaw rides, and picnics on the shore—until World War II erupted and life changed drastically. Jim’s father, a British citizen fluent in several Chinese dialects, joined the Allied forces. For the next several years, Jim and his mother moved from one place to another—Shanghai, San Francisco, Vancouver, Darjeeling—first escaping Japanese occupation then trying to find security, with no clear destination except the unpredictable end of the war. For Jim, those ever-changing years took on the quality of a dream, sometimes a nightmare, a feeling that persists in the stunning full-page, full-color paintings that along with their accompanying text tell the story of Leaving China.

Follow this link to the author's page for excerpts in the book.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Miss Julia Series


Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble
(March 28, 2014, Penguin Paperback)
and
Miss Julia's Marvelous Makeover
(April 8, 2014, Viking Hardback)
Ann B. Ross

Idgie Says:
Miss Julia is a life unto herself.  Her series continues to grow.  The Dew has reviewed 4 of the books in her series over the last few years.   They are books with real stories behind them, but they do tend toward the cloyingly cute at times.   I'm not saying this as a negative, but if your sweet tooth in book reading has limits, this might not be the series for you.  If you don't have a problem with it, this is a series set in a small town that follows the residents through their days and you slowly come to know everyone it the neighborhood.  

I think it's fun that Ann threw in recipes for Miss Julia Stirs Up Trouble - I'm a sucker for a book with recipes integrated into the story.
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Miss Julia Stirs up TroubleMISS JULIA STIRS UP TROUBLE
IN PAPERBACK MARCH 2014!!

Miss Julia serves up the perfect next course—along with dozens of recipes from Abbotsville’s best cooks
With a crisp bite in the air, Miss Julia is enjoying a well-earned respite by her new fireplace. While the logs crackle, Miss Julia takes a rare moment to admire the colorful trees in her garden—and doesn't even worry about adding raking to the to-do list. Such quiet moments are rare in Miss Julia's life, and all too soon she discovers that, alas, autumn leaves aren't the only things falling. James, Hazel Marie's housekeeper, has had a nasty tumble down some stairs. How can Hazel Marie feed and take care of him—not to mention a husband and two babies—when she barely knows how to boil water?
Miss Julia jumps into help by convincing the ladies of Abbotsville to put on their aprons and give cooking lessons. Not only will they each share a favorite recipe with Hazel Marie, they will each demonstrate how to prepare their chosen dishes. Miss Julia soon has a bevy of eager chefs signed up, and she is relieved that Hazel Marie will have food on her table each evening to feed her growing family and, especially, the sometimes irascible Mr. J.D. Pickens, who seems to be spending too much time away from home.
With success so close she can taste it, Miss Julia must also contend with the arrival of Hazel Marie’s uncle, Brother Vern, an itinerant preacher with one hand in the offering plate and the other in the pockets of the nearest sinner. As she keeps a sharp eye on him, Miss Julia also learns that James may be dabbling in a shady scam—and that Lloyd may be his accomplice.
An internet scam, a crabby patient on bedrest, an overwhelmed lady of the house with a family to feed, and an unexpected guest with questionable intentions? It’s a recipe for trouble. And as usual, Miss Julia cooks up a plan—and serves up a delight.

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MISS JULIA'S MARVELOUS MAKEOVER


Miss Julia's Marvelous Makeover
NEW for 2014!! — MISS JULIA'S MARVELOUS MAKEOVER

Miss Julia is looking forward to an easy, restful summer, but before she can turn around good Sam announces that he is running for the state senate. Then a long-lost cousin announces that her granddaughter is on her way to Abbotsville so Julia can give her some polish and find her a husband.

On top of that, Sam has a gallbladder episode so that Julia has to take his place on the campaign trail, and the rude and unkempt Trixie proves more than Julia can handle. Hazel Marie takes Trixie in hand, but not before Trixie has set her cap for a mortuary science trainee by way of an online dating service. But that future mortician has his cap set, not only for Trixie but also for what Trixie might inherit. It takes Miss Julia, Etta Mae Wiggins, and Latisha to show him the error of his ways.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The House at the End of Hope Street

                                               
medium_The_House_at_the_End_of_Hope_StreetI gave this a shout out last May.  The book is now coming out in paperback.  I did not review the book but had a Q & A with the author that you might find interesting.  Find it HERE. 

Idgie

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THE HOUSE AT THE END OF HOPE STREET

By Menna Van Praag

What would you do if you had ninety-nine days to change your life? When you enter the world of Menna van Praag’s magical debut, THE HOUSE AT THE END OF HOPE STREET (Penguin; On-Sale: March 25, 2014; 978-0-143-12494-8; $16.00) about an enchanted house that offers refuge to women in their time of need, that is precisely what you’ll begin to ask yourself.
 
When Alba Ashby, the youngest Ph.D. student at Cambridge University, suffers the Worst Event of Her Life, she finds herself at the door of 11 Hope Street.  There, a beautiful older woman named Peggy invites Alba to stay, on the house’s unusual conditions: she’ll have ninety-nine nights, and no more, to turn her life around. The enchanted house will help Alba get her life back but, Peggy warns her, it may not give her what she wants. It will give her what she needs. The house, invisible to everyone except those who need it, has had more than a few distinguished guests. Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Parker, and Agatha Christie, among others, all stayed there at hopeless times in their lives and still hang around—quite literally—in talking portraits on the walls.
 
At Hope Street Alba meets Carmen, a sexy singer who no longer performs, and seems haunted by something that is buried under a plant in the garden with flowers so dark they are almost black. Living with them is Greer, a failed actress who’s hiding a dark secret of her own. But perhaps most mystifying of all is Peggy herself, who entertains her lover on Sundays, eats chocolate cake for breakfast, and holds conversations with the illustrious tenants occupying the house’s walls. As Alba begins to piece her life back together she discovers her own family has been hiding truths from her, truths that will lead Alba to places and people she never knew existed and to a life she never dreamed possible. 
 
Inventive, charming, and filled with a fabulous cast of literary figures, THE HOUSE AT THE END OF HOPE STREET is a wholly imaginative novel of feminine wisdom and second chances, with just the right dash of magic.
 
About the Author
Menna van Praag is a freelance writer, journalist, and Oxford graduate. She is the author of Men, Money and Chocolate. She lives in Cambridge, England, with her husband and son.
 
 
 


THE HOUSE AT THE END OF HOPE STREET
Penguin; $16.00
ISBN: 978-0-143-12494-8; On Sale March 25, 2014
 

Sleep Donation - An eBook Novella

Sleep Donation - A Novella
Karen Russell
Atavist Books
Ebook Only
March 25, 2014

Idgie Says:
A fascinating look into the future where people die of lack of sleep.  Not only do they die, but if they are some of the lucky few to receive "sleep donations", they can become infected with the nightmares of others - rather like a dirty sleep hypodermic being used on 1,000 people to save money. 

For some reason this story rather reminds me of Atwood's Handmaiden Tale, in the writing where it doesn't always spell things out, but keeps a fuzzy layer between the facts and reader - not a bad thing at all, it lets your imagination run wild.   But other parts are incredibly detailed, showing that Karen really put some thought into how this situation could be handled, should it really happen.  

A nice sized novella, ebook format only. 

Book Description:
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Swamplandia!, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, an imaginative and haunting novella about an insomnia epidemic set in the near future.

A crisis has swept America. Hundreds of thousands have lost the ability to sleep. Enter the Slumber Corps, an organization that urges healthy dreamers to donate sleep to an insomniac. Under the wealthy and enigmatic Storch brothers the Corps' reach has grown, with outposts in every major US city. Trish Edgewater, whose sister Dori was one of the first victims of the lethal insomnia, has spent the past seven years recruiting for the Corps. But Trish’s faith in the organization and in her own motives begins to falter when she is confronted by “Baby A,” the first universal sleep donor, and the mysterious "Donor Y."

Sleep Donation explores a world facing the end of sleep as we know it, where “Night Worlds” offer black market remedies to the desperate and sleep deprived, and where even the act of making a gift is not as simple as it appears.

All I Have In This World

All I Have in this World
Michael Parker
Algonquin
March 25, 2014

Idgie Says:
A few years ago I read The Watery Part of the World by Michael and was really impressed by his writing.  So I eagerly grabbed the opportunity to read his newest book, All I Have in this World. 

Once again he has a beautifully flowing cadence to his writing.  His pages are filled with quirky mannerisms and interesting turns of phrase.  There are authors out there whose style of writing is as interesting as the actual story, and Michael is one of those authors.  The characters come alive within the pages and even the little asides that are put into the book - throw away moments in the character's lives - remain interesting to the reader.

There are quite a few side characters in this novel in addition to the two main characters - each with a story that revolves in some way around the car that becomes the focal point of Marcus' and Maria's story together.  All of them interesting.

Book Description:
Two strangers meet on a windswept car lot in West Texas. Marcus is fleeing the disastrous fallout of chasing a lifelong dream; Maria is returning to the hometown she fled years ago, to make amends. They begin to argue over the car that they both desperately want—a low-slung sky-blue twenty-year-old Buick Electra.

The car, too, has seen its share of mistakes and failures. Every dent and seam has witnessed pivotal moments in the lives of others, from the boy who assembled it at the Cleveland factory to all the owners who were to follow: a God-fearing man who sells it when he sees a sexy girl sprawled across it; a doctor who can’t dissociate it from his son’s fate; and a rancher’s wife who’d much rather live without it for all the history it carries.

Marcus and Maria, after knowing each other for less than an hour, decide to buy the old car together. And as this surprising novel follows the rocky paths of the Electra and its owners—both past and present—these two lost souls form an unexpected alliance.

All I Have in This World is a tender novel about our desire to reconcile past mistakes, and the ways we must learn to forgive others, and perhaps even ourselves, if we are ever to move on.

Monday, March 24, 2014

Tempting Fate



Not a Book Review, but a shout out for a book that might be great for the upcoming Spring Break Pool/Beach time!  Author Q & A bonus below!

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Tempting Fate 
(St. Martin's Press) 
March 25th


About the Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of such beloved novels as Jemima J, The Beach House, and Another Piece of My Heart comes an enthralling and emotional story about how much we really understand the temptations that can threaten even the most idyllic of relationships....

Gabby and Elliott have been happily married for eighteen years. They have two teenaged daughters. They have built a life together. Forty-three year old Gabby is the last person to have an affair. She can't relate to the way her friends desperately try to cling to the beauty and allure of their younger years...And yet, she too knows her youth is quickly slipping away. She could never imagine how good it would feel to have a handsome younger man show interest in her-until the night it happens. Matt makes Gabby feel sparkling, fascinating, alive-something she hasn't felt in years. What begins as a long-distance friendship soon develops into an emotional affair as Gabby discovers her limits and boundaries are not where she expects them to be. Intoxicated, Gabby has no choice but to step ever deeper into the allure of attraction and attention, never foreseeing the life-changing consequences that lie ahead. If she makes one wrong move she could lose everything-and find out what really matters most.

A heartfelt and complex story, Tempting Fate will have readers gripped until they reach the very last page, and thinking about the characters long after they put the book down.

About the Author
JANE GREEN is the author of fourteen New York Times bestselling novels. She has been featured in People, Newsweek, USA Today, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan. She lives in Connecticut with her family.

____________________________________________
 
Q&A with Jane Green
author of Tempting Fate

Tempting Fate centers around a happily married woman who falls prey to temptation when a handsome younger man shows interest in her. How did you choose this as a topic for the novel?
A number of women I know had left what appeared to be happy marriages, everyone later discovering they were having affairs. As a woman in her mid-forties, I was fascinated with what happens to the middle-aged woman, and how vulnerable she is. I had always assumed that having an affair meant there had to be problems in your marriage, but after receiving a few flirtatious emails from someone I once met at a book festival, I started to think about how seductive it is to be noticed at a time in your life when you’re feeling invisible and that we all have a need to still feel beautiful, valued, worthy. I realized that affairs can happen because of how addictive attention can be, with little to do with how happy your marriage is. It’s so easy to think flirtation is completely innocent, but what happens if you have chemistry with someone? What happens if they pursue you? What happens if, for the first time in years, they make you feel alive?

What is the biggest message you want readers to take away from Tempting Fate?
Anyone indulging in a flirtation when they're already taken should read it as a warning signal. The grass is never greener, he's not your soulmate, and you should stop now before you make a terrible mistake...

Is there any Jane Green in Temping Fate’s Gabby?
There is a little of me in all of my novels. I created Gabby because I really wanted to connect with my English roots. Like me, she's a transplant, and I think my own homesickness comes across. Unlike me, she makes decisions that turn out to be disastrous for her marriage. Also unlike me, I have no desire whatsoever for any more children...

Once you hit the New York Times bestseller list as an author, is there more pressure on you to continue to write books that hit the list?
The pressure grows and grows...will you make the list, will you be higher than last time, is your career on the upswing or is this the moment it all comes crashing down and everyone realizes you're actually a load of rubbish. I had tremendous, and instant, success with my early books, and later had a period when things were quieter. It was a humbling, and valuable lesson. Now I tend to focus less on how well the book does, and more on creating the best possible book I can create. If I know I've done that, then I'm happy.

Do you have any special rituals or traditions when you begin writing a new novel?
A new notebook dedicated to the book! Large, thin enough to slip into my computer case, the very first page always contains notes on the story, before moving on to characters. All my thoughts and notes go into the book, always in longhand, before being typed up on the computer. And it's usually pink.

Have you started writing your next book yet? What can you tell us?
I'm on the third, and hopefully final, edit of Saving Grace. Grace Chapman is married to a bestselling author, with a perfect life, apart from the disorganization. A new assistant seems to be the answer to their dreams, until Grace finds her life being stolen from under her feet.

Friday, March 21, 2014

Southern Sin





Southern Sin 

True Stories of the Sultry South & Women Behaving Badly

Edited by Lee Gutkind & Beth Ann Fennelly





In the steamy South, temptation is as wild and plentiful as kudzu.

Whether the sin in question is skinny-dipping or becoming an unlikely porn star, running rum or renting out a room to a pair of exhibitionistic adulterers, in these true stories women defy tradition and forge their own paths through life—often learning unexpected lessons from the experience.

As Dorothy Allison writes in her introduction, “The most dangerous stories are the true ones, the ones we hesitate to tell, the adventures laden with fear or shame or the relentless pull of regret. Some of those are about things that we are secretly deeply proud to have done.”

A diverse array of contributors—mothers, daughters, sisters, best friends, fiancées, divorcees, professors, poets, lifeguards-in-training, lapsed Baptists, tipsy debutantes, middle-aged lesbians—lend their voices to this collection. Introspective and abashed, joyous and triumphant (but almost never apologetic), they remind us that sin, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Links below to see the stories and authors:

Table of Contents

Contributors

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Frustrated Objective




Frustrated Objective
Juan Carlos Catala

He knows numerous different ways to tie a knot. His old profession, which demanded a lot of daring, requires it. He became an expert, not only in tying but also untying every single knot that he'd encounter every moment in his career. That's why this trick has been carefully planned. It's the first time he's attempted it and he doesn't want to fail.

Several years have passed since the last time he had to tie an important knot. Now his hands are executing this task once again. Although his fingers move with absolute certainty through the damp rope -- made this way to increase its resistance -- his slow reflexes betray his commitment. His nervous system also delays him. But he has already made up his mind.

All of his body weight is placed on a wooden table with long, metal legs that lifts him four feet off the floor. The table is three feet in diameter. He kneels and balances himself, trying to stay stable. His ankles and arms are tied together behind him. His body is contorted into a triangle.

As he prepares, there's no audience to applaud him. Cries and cheers are not heard. In his not-so-distant past, the yells resounded: 

"That's nothing for you, Zor!"

"That is easy!"

"That's no challenge!" 

This time silence surrounds him. 

He's not on a stage or in a stadium, nor two thousand feet above the ocean. He's in his own apartment. He resides in a lower Manhattan neighborhood where boarded-up windows and broken glass on the streets and sidewalks are common. Graffiti is scrawled on brick and cement walls: "Jennifer loves Pedro," "Latesha + Tommy"…along with the usual four-letter words. Hope left this hood a few decades ago.

He is completely alone.  Today Zor has no assistants to help him.
No paramedics will arrive to rescue him if something doesn't go as planned, which happened during his last two shows, when he was advised to retire for his own good.

He knows the risk. But he has decided it's worth it for what he wants to take. His…own life.

A life plagued with frustrations, losses and disillusionment that he doesn't want to continue.

For this reason, the natural-colored, one-inch-wide rope he's using to do the procedure suspends from the ceiling of the small studio apartment. Two ancient metal hooks that once held two 75-pound chandeliers are nailed into the ceiling, a few feet away from each other. They are conveniently placed for his final performance. That's why the rope starts with a knot drawing his hands and feet together, toward the back of his body, then runs in a forty-five-degree angle up to the ceiling. It passes the first hook, goes to the other one, and drops vertically down to his head, ending in a large hangman's noose which floats half an inch away from his face. He hits the noose softly with his forehead as he looks over his shoulder to examine the knot in his hands, reassuring himself that everything is ready. As he moves, the rope sways slightly back and forth.

Now he places his head inside the twelve-inch-wide noose, proceeding to lower his body at short intervals and adjusting the rope around the skin of his neck.
Ending this ritual, he takes a deep breath and holds it for a few seconds, then lets the air puff out of his mouth. He's resigned. "All I have to do now is throw myself to one side and end this," he thinks.

Seeking a few seconds of relief, the man closes his red, exhausted eyes. Tears well up in each eye but take a few seconds to escape his eyes and trickle down his cheeks. He can't believe he has a single tear left to shed.

He's spent several hours without sleep or rest, drinking rum instead. He's passed hours in delirium. Blurry images fill his mind, confusing him even more. He can't concentrate on one thought for more than two seconds. He's ready to end it once and for all.

With his sight still hazy, he manages to focus on a poster tacked to the wall. He sees a photograph of himself, covered from head to toe in ropes, chains and padlocks. The title at the top reads: "ZOR, the Escape Magician." A tiny smile comes to his lips for a few seconds. Then it vanishes as if the smile was never there.

Feeling nostalgia wash over him like a spring rain, he scans the 900-square-foot apartment. Bright-colored outfits are spilled all over the floor. A black leather sofa he and his wife bought 20 years ago at an upscale furniture store and two brown recliners with threadbare arms and dark stains from his shoes also occupy the room. A body-sized, wooden trunk, painted gold but with noticeable paint chips in several spots, sits unused in a corner. A few of his magic tricks still inhabit the interior. A thirty-six-inch by twenty-four-inch, silver-colored box several months ago held at least fifteen gold-plated and pewter awards, plaques and other trophies which recognized his art. Baffled, he sees the empty box but doesn't know where they are now; nor can he recall that he sold them.

On the otherwise-bare, dusty living room wall hangs a five-foot-tall poster of his wife Rita. She smiles during their honeymoon days on Antigua, where they stayed in a small cabin just a half mile from the Caribbean Sea. He is standing beside her, his arm wrapped around her shoulders. His eyes look at her, absorbed in her beauty. He'd asked a 14-year-old island boy to snap the photo. But now the picture hangs askew, with shattered glass showing where he's thrown projectiles at it with anger and frustration. He grimaces now when he thinks of Rita.

For years, Rita had warned him that if he wouldn't quit drinking and stop throwing temper tantrums, she would leave. One day, she packed her suitcases because she had found a shiny, new love with his agent, of all men.  In his delirium, they talk through this photo since the day she left. He's fuzzy on how many years have passed.  She used a lawyer to communicate with him just once. He refuses to sign the divorce papers but even so, she vanished from his life.
Now he appears very different than he did on his honeymoon, thanks to the copious gray hair that sprouts from his head and two-thirds of his face that he hasn't trimmed in a long while. His beard has numerous knots and a couple of food particles enmeshed in it. His body once weighed a trim 180 pounds, now, though, it's at least 60 pounds underweight. His gentle face is covered with veins and redness that demonstrate his love for the demon rum. He looks much older than he should. Now he thinks: "Fifty years of life are too much. Going on living the way I have been is not only insane but shameful."

Thanks to the bottle, he has lost his wife, most of his old friends, his artistic abilities and gigs, his relatives and even the notion of whom he'd once been. Depression and despair have taken not only his self-esteem. His assets, including a five-bedroom condominium, were all confiscated because of the debts he's amassed. A newspaper hasn't mentioned his name for at least ten years, when he suffered a breakdown and had to be hospitalized. Although his name was once known throughout the English-speaking world as one of the greatest escape artists ever, hardly a soul would recall the name Zor now. Is that a cartoon character? many people would ask. His own mother wouldn't recognize him, even if he hadn't been orphaned when he was eight years old. 

But he's not reminiscing about his traumatic past and how he's come to this rock-bottom end. The alcohol flowing in his bloodstream doesn't allow him to think clearly. He can't remember the last time he concentrated on anything for more than 30 seconds. Except, of course, for making this knot.

He stares down at an empty rum bottle on the floor; he feels that emptiness in his heart. The bottle seems to stare at him as a witness. He has piled other bottles into a dusty corner of the apartment. Most of them are covered with dust, with the liquor in brown drops congealed on their sides. He has spent more time with them than anything else the last few years.

On his scratched, pine dining room table, he's placed a tarnished silver candelabra, an oversized bouquet of silk purple hydrangeas, dusty white plates and silverware and a few cloth napkins. All of them are in disarray, as if a child pushed them aside during a fit of rage. Wrinkled, torn envelopes and letters complete the tabletop tableau.

On top of these items lies an eviction notice to vacate the apartment. He had more than enough time to leave but couldn't do it by himself. His electric, gas and water bills all scream "last notice" in red ink. 

Angrily and with a sigh, he dries his tears with the shoulder of his faded, gray tee shirt. Then he throws his head to his right side. He begins to count: "Ten…nine…eight... " Images pass through his mind quickly, some from his childhood and others from his adult years. 

His life has become a nightmare, playing like an endless tape, starting each morning at dawn and ending in the oblivion of restless sleep. The present days have dimmed any joy he had yesterday.

He's attempting a trick that he knows will be definite. This time it's not an act. It's his final escape.

It is nearly six o'clock in the afternoon and his apartment interior grows dark. Outside of the brownstone building, people move quickly to their destinations. New York City's traffic is heavy as people leave their office buildings and spew onto the sidewalks of lower Manhattan, heading to the subways, taxis or to walk home. Voices rise; laughs and shouts ring out. 

Inside his apartment, however, all is silent. Zor breaks it with a soft sob. A drop of mucus oozes from his nose.  

"Seven…six…five…" He resumes counting down. He realizes that it won't be long now. He has made the last decision he'll ever make. "Four…three…" He's distracted by the sweat trickling down his cheeks and involuntarily he raises his shoulder slightly and jerks his head to the side, trying to swipe it. He glances toward an upper corner of the room, towards the rail adorning the top of a battered oak armoire. 

In that precise moment , through the rail, he espies a hidden bottle of rum. Because of the armoire's height, he couldn't see it from the floor. From his position kneeling on the table, however, he can focus on the clear bottle filled with orange-brown liquid. He feels a sudden, incredible urge to drink from it. His saliva glands respond automatically.

With rapid clarity, he recalls one of the arguments he had with his wife about his drinking. This rum bottle had disappeared without a trace. Although he searched for it for several days afterward, he never saw it again. Now he convinces himself that he had not once opened and tasted it. Rita will never know it but this seems as if she's trying to help him one more time.

He sees her eyes staring at him from the poster, making him feel  ashamed. He starts to shake and loses his balance. Trying to regain it, the table slips out from under him. Abruptly he finds himself in the air. The rope violently yanks up his head, hands and feet while his belly plummets to the floor. His body contorts into a grotesque horseshoe. His stomach stops just six inches from the wooden floor.
The table bangs on the floor, obscuring the sound of an aching sigh trapped in his throat. The rope tightens around his neck as gravity takes effect.

Although everything has gone according to plan, he's been taken by surprise. He panics.

He used to stay calm because he had to act quickly to escape death. This time, though, he's so frightened that his mind is blank and incapable of transmitting the tiniest coherent message.

Furiously and feebly, he tries to untie the knot on his hands. His inebriation delays his reflexes. He violently pitches his body between the two ropes, only inches from the floor. His belly grazes it as gravity pulls his body even further downward.

As the rope forcefully squeezes his neck, his face turns red. Blood accumulates in his veins and his eyes pop open, straining against his eyelids. His brain receives images but they are only shapes. They don't make any sense. The rope increases its pressure and narrows, pulling against the hooks on the ceiling.
Everything is working perfectly. His body hangs grotesquely with his head pulled several inches backward by the rope, and the weight of his hands and his feet. The man considers whether he has any chance of stabilizing his position and saving himself. But that's out of the question. The rope breaking would be his only salvation.

Quiet grunts buried in the lower part of his throat are unable to escape his lips as his face burns a burgundy red.

The struggle intensifies. He realizes how desperate the situation is. His eyes feel as if they'll explode but they seek the rum bottle on top of the armoire. Still this vision is secondary to the lack of oxygen. He's realized, too late, that he is not ready to die.

He opens his mouth, trying to inhale the precious air he needs but the rope around his neck continues to tighten. His tongue is forced out as the area is constricted. His mind no longer controls his  movements. The nervous system has taken charge.

Uncontrollable spasms roll through his body. Exhaustion starts to take its inevitable toll. His hands no longer move, his eyes no longer see images. Instead, everything in the room becomes dark. Bloodshot eyes quickly roll upward, a notice that their job is finished. Little evidence of a struggle remains. 

One final spasm occurs, followed by a deep, internal groan that indicates the end has come. The man's body relaxes. 

Silence creeps into the apartment. Everything is ended. In reality it had ended many years ago. Just now… life…is gone.

The End


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Bio:  Juan Carlos Catala. I'm a writer and musician. Born in 1962, I'm one of nine children. I was raised in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, a suburb of San Juan. But I've also resided in New York City and Tampa, Florida; now I call Clearwater, Florida, home.

I was inspired to write this story after two close friends committed suicide by hanging themselves.