I believe you will never forget these men -- frightened men, sometimes obscene, humorous, sick, scabrous, full of yearning for home as it was, or home as it seems in memoryThey are men in war, but like most of us, they do not know where they are going; they know only their own past
Because I believe The Naked and the Dead is a great novel I can say that if you have read Thomas Boyd's Through the Wheat, Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Hemingway's Farewell to Arms, or Three Soldiers, you cannot afford to pass by this astonishing performance by a young man who at twenty-five knows more about the core of man than many a writer of twice his years
Rinehart

Or
trying to staff her with a butter-fife
"I'm going to praise your show to the skies, Edgar
I doubt if that means much to you tonight, but
perhaps it will later onThe paintings are just
extraordinary
Ahead, the lights of the hospital were twinkling
in the darkThere was a Waffle House right next
doorIt was probably good business for the
cardiac unit
"Will you give Libby my love, if she's in any
condition to take note of such things?"
740
"Sure
"And I have something for youIt's in the glove
compartmentI was going to use
it to bait the hook for a follow-up interview, but
fuck it
I had some problems with the old car's glove
compartment button, but balenciaga designer finally the little door
fell open like a corpse's mouthThere was a lot
more than a manila envelope in there - a geologist
could have taken core-samples probably going back
to 1965 - but the envelope was in front, and it
had my name printed on it
As she pulled up in front of the hospital, in a
spot marked 5 MINUTES PICK-UP AND DROP-OFF, Mary
said: "Prepare to be amazedAn old copyeditor
friend of mine chased that down for me -
she's older than Libby, but still sharp
I bent back the clasps and slid out two Xeroxed
sheets of an ancient newspaper story"That," Mary
said, "is from the Port Charlotte Weekly EchoIt's got to be the story my friend
Aggie saw, and chanel j 12 the reason I could never find it is
because I never looked as far south as Port
741
CharlotteAlso, the Weekly Echo gave up the ghost
in 1931
The streetlight beneath which she'd parked wasn't
good enough for the fine print, but I could read
the headline and see the pictureI looked for a
long time
"It means something to you, doesn't it?" she askedI just don't know what
"If you figure it out, will you tell me?"
"All right," I said"You might even believe itthis is one story you'll never printAnd thanks for coming to my
showRemember to give Libby my
loveI had seen Elizabeth Eastlake for
the last time
ix
742
The ICU nurse on duty told me that Elizabeth chanel cambon tote was
in surgeryWhen I asked for what, she told me she
wasn't sureI looked around the waiting room
"If you're looking for MrWireman, I believe he
went to the cafeteria for coffee," the nurse said
"That's on the fourth floor I started away, then turned back
Hadlock part of the surgical team?"
"I don't think so," she said, "but he's
observing
I thanked her again and went in search of Wireman
I found him in a far corner of the caff, sitting
in front of a paper cup about the size of a World
War II mortar shellExcept for a scattering of
nurses and orderlies and one tense-looking family
group in another corner of the room, we had the
place to ourselvesMost of the fake fendi spy bag chairs were
upended on the tables, and a tired-looking lady in
red rayon was working out with a mopAn iPod hung
in a sling between her breasts
"Hola, mi vato," Wireman said, and gave me a wan
smileHis hair, neatly combed back when he made
his entrance with Elizabeth and Jack, had fallen
down around his ears, and there were dark circles
743
around his eyes"Why don't you grab yourself a
cup of coffee? It tastes like factory-made shit,
but it do prop up a person's eyelidsJust let me borrow a sip of yours I
had three aspirin in my pants pocketI fished
them out and swallowed them with some of Wireman's
coffee
He wrinkled his nose"In with all your omega usa germy
ch

"Never mind," Jack said, still grinningThen he
grew serious again"But there are no such things
as vampires, EdgarThere could be ghosts, I'll
give you that much - I think almost everyone
believes there could be ghosts - but there's no
such thing as vampires He brightened as an idea
struck him"Besides, it takes a vampire to make a
vampireThe Eastlake twins drowned
I picked up the short harpoon again, turning it
from side to side, making the reflection from the
tarnished tip tumble along the wall"Still, this
is suggestive
"Really," Jack agreed
"So's the unlocked door you found when you montre cartier tank brought
the picnic basket," I saidThe
canvas that was lifted out of the rack and put
onto the easel
808
"You saying it was the crazy librarian after all,
amigo?"
"No My voice cracked, brokeI had
to take another sip of water before I could say
what needed saying"Just that maybe vampires
aren't the only things that come back from the
dead
"What are you talking about?" Jack asked
"Zombies?"
I thought of the Perse with her rotting sails
"Let's say deserters
xi
"Are you sure you want to be here alone tonight,
Edgar?" Wireman asked"Because I'm not sure it's
such a great ideaEspecially chanel white bag with that stack of
old pictures for company"You have
succeeded in giving Wireman a first-class case of
the willies
We were sitting out in the Florida room, watching
the sun start its long, slow decline toward the
horizonI had produced cheese and crackers
809
"I'm not sure this will work otherwise," I said
"Think of me as a gunslinger of the art worldI
paint alone, podner
Jack looked at me over a fresh glass of iced tea
"You're planning to paint?"
"Well - sketchIt's what I know how to do And
when I thought back to a certain pair of gardening
gloves - HANDS printed on the back of one, OFF black chanel tote on
the back of the other - I thought sketching would
be enough, especially if I did it with little
Elizabeth Eastlake's colored pencils
I swung around to Wireman"You have the funeral
parlor tonight, correct?"
Wireman glanced at his watch and heaved a sighThere's another
visitation tomorrow from noon until twoRelatives
from afar will come to bare their teeth at the
usurping interloperThen the
final act, day after tomorrowFuneral at the
Unitarian Universalist Church in OspreyFollowed by cremation at Abbot-WexlerBurnyburny,
hot-hot-hot
810
Wireman noddedRemember
what we sang as children? chloe paddington bags 'The worms crawl in, the
worms crawl out, and the pus runs out like shaving
cream
"Yep," Wireman agreedHe selected another cracker,
looked at it, then threw it violently back onto
the trayIt bounced onto the floor
Jack picked up the cracker, seemed to consider
eating it, then put it asidePerhaps he had
decided eating crackers off a Florida room floor
violated another man-law
I said to Wireman, "When you come back from the
funeral parlor tonight, you check in on me, okay?"
"Yes
"If I tell you I'm fine, to just go on home, you
do it
"Don't interrupt you if you're communing with chanel purses bags your
muse

She didn't want any Spring
Breakers partying in thereNot where Salvador
Dal? and James Bama once laid down their storied
heads
"I can't say that I blame herIt's a special
place
"Yes, but few of the famous artists who stayed
there did anything specialThen the second
'regular' tenant comes along - a building
contractor from Minneapolis recovering from an
accident, andElizabeth must be very
gratified
"In the building biz, we called that laying it on
with a trowel, Dr"And the people who were at your
lecture didn't think soI
632
only wish Elizabeth could have been thereHow she
would have preened
"Maybe she'll make the opening
Very slowly, Gene Hadlock shook his headShe's fought the Alzheimer's fendi spy replica tooth and nail,
but there comes a time when the disease simply
winsNot because the patient is weak but because
it's a physical condition, like MS
Once the symptoms begin to manifest, usually as a
loss of short-term memory, a clock begins to run
I think Elizabeth's time may be up, and I'm very
sorryIt's clear to me, I think it was clear to
everyone at the lecture, that all this fuss makes
you uncomfortable-"
"You can say that again
" - but if she'd been there, she would have
enjoyed it for youI've known her most of my life,
and I can tell you she would have supervised
everything, including the hanging of each and
every picture in the gallery
"I wish I'd known her then," I saidWhen she was chanel watch women forty-five and I
was twenty, we won the mixed doubles amateur
tennis tournament at The Colony on Longboat KeyI
633
was home from college on semester breakI've
still got the cupI imagine she's still got hers,
somewhere
That made me think of something - You'll find it,
I'm sure - but before I could chase that memory to
its source, something else occurred to me
Something much more recentHadlock - Gene - did Elizabeth herself ever
paint? Or draw?"
"Elizabeth? Never
"You're sure of thatI asked her once, and I remember the
occasion very wellIt was when Norman Rockwell
was in town to lectureHe didn't stay at your
place, either; he stayed at the RitzNorman
Rockwell, pipe and all!" Gene Hadlock shook discount tiffany's necklace his
head, smiling more widely now"Ye gods, what a
controversy that was, the howling when the Arts
Council announced MrSaturday Evening Post was
comingIt was Elizabeth's idea and she loved the
hubbub it caused, said they could have filled Ben
Hill Griffin Stadium-" He saw my blank look"The
University of Florida'The swamp where only
Gators come out alive'?"
634
"If you're talking football, my interest begins
with the Vikings and ends with the Packers
"The point is, I asked her about her own artistic
abilities during the Rockwell uproar - and he did
indeed sell out; not the Geldbart, either, but
City CenterElizabeth laughed and said she could
hardly draw stick figuresIn fact, she used a
sports metaphor, louis vuitton mahina which is probably why I thought
of the GatorsShe said she was like one of those
wealthy college alumni, except she was interested
in art instead of footballShe said, 'If you
can't be an athlete, hon, be an athletic supporter
And if you can't be an artist, feed em, care for
em, and make sure they have a place to come in out
of the rain' But artistic talent herself?
Absolutely none
I thought of telling him about Mary Ire's friend
Aggie WinterbornThen I touched the red pen in my
pocket and decided not toI decided what I wanted
to do was to get back to Duma Key and paint8 was the most ambitious of the
series, also the largest and the most complex, and
it was almost done
635
I stood up and offered my chanel cambon bag

"I may tell you
about them in time, Edgar, but I don't want to
stick Jack with Miss Eastlake for too longAll
418
other considerations aside, she's apt to be
worried about me
I could have said that Jack - also sort of a dear
thing - would probably be worried, too, but
instead I only told him to go on
"You often have a redness about you, muchacho,"
Wireman said"I don't think it's an aura, exactly,
and it's not exactly a thoughtI've gotten it from you as a word as well as a
color on three or four occasionsAnd yes, once
when I was off Duma KeyWhen we were at the
Scoto
"When I was stuck for a black quilted bag word
"Were you? I don't remember
"Neither do I, but I'm sure that was itRed's a
mnemonic for meFrom a Reba McEntyre
song, of all thingsI found it almost by accident
And there's something else, I guessWhen I forget
stuff I tend to get
"A little pissed off?"
I thought of how I'd taken Pam by the throatHow
I'd tried to choke her
419
"Anyway, I guess that red must have gotten out and
stained mymy mental suit of clothes? Is that
what it's like?"
"CloseAnd every time I sense that around you, in
you, I think of waking up after putting a bullet
in my temple and seeing the whole world was dark
redI dolce and gabbana knock off thought I was in hell, that that was what
hell was going to be like, an eternity of deepest
scarlet"Then I realized it was just
the appleIt was lying right in front of me,
maybe an inch from my eyesIt was on the floor
and I was on the floor
"I'll be damned," I said
"Yes, that's what I thought, but it wasn't
damnation, only an apple'In Adam's fall, sinned
we all' I said that out loudThen I said,
'Fruit-bowl' I remember everything that happened
and everything that was said over the next ninetysix
hours with perfect clarity"Of course I know some of the things I
remember aren't true, but I remember mulberry leather them with
exquisite precision, all the sameNo crossexamination
could trip me up to this very day, not
even concerning the pus-covered roaches I saw
420
crawling out of old Jack Fineham's eyes, mouth,
and nostrils
"I had a hell of a headache, but once I got over
the shock of the apple close-up, I felt pretty
much okay otherwiseIt was four in the morning
Six hours had gone byI was lying in a puddle of
congealed bloodIt was caked on my right cheek
like jellyI remember sitting up and saying, 'I'm
a dandy in aspic' and trying to remember if aspic
was some kind of jellyI said, 'No jelly in mulberry leather bag the
fruit-bowl' And saying that seemed so rational it
was like passing a sanity testI began to doubt
that I'd shot myselfIt seemed more likely that
I'd gone to sleep at the dining room table only
thinking of shooting myself, fallen off my chair,
and hit my headThat's where the blood came from
In fact, it seemed almost certain, given the fact
that I was moving around and talkingI told
myself to say something elseTo say my mother's
nameInstead I said, 'Cash crop in the groun,
lan'lord soon be roun'"
I nodded, excitedI had had similar experiences,
not once but countless times, after coming out of
my cartier tank watch coma