CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

    PROLOGUE

In which I discuss another book as a way to throw into bold relief what this book is about.

1. NEGOTIATING AGAINST MYSELF

In which I evoke my character and personality, especially the way I always argue against myself, am ridiculously ambivalent—who knew?

2. LOVE IS A LONG, CLOSE SCRUTINY

In which I characterize love as a religion w/fallible gods.

3. WHY IS THE HUMAN ANIMAL SO SAD?

Exploration of melancholy, in myself and the general populace.

4. OUR GROUND TIME HERE WILL BE BRIEF

Partial answer to question asked in previous chapter: we’re the only animal that knows it will die.

5. THE WOUND AND THE BOW

In which I make various self-destructive gestures, flirt none too successfully or seriously with suicide, pull back from the brink via the written word.

6. ALL GREAT BOOKS WIND UP WITH THE WRITER GETTING HIS TEETH BASHED IN

The only books I care about strip the writer naked and, in that way, have at least the chance of conveying some real knowledge of our shared predicament.

7. LIFE V. ART

Do I still love literature?

8. HOW LITERATURE SAVED MY LIFE

How it didn’t.

Permissions Acknowledgments

A Note About the Author

Other Books by This Author