And, this is the most marvelous first paragraph (and a bit) of “An Orderly Man”:
I am an orderly man. I say this with no sense of false modesty or of conceit. It is a simple statement of fact. That’s all. Being orderly, as a matter of fact, can be excessively tiresome and it often irritates me greatly, but I cannot pull away. I sometimes think I would far prefer to live slumped in some attic amidst a litter of junk, dirty underclothing, greasy pots and pans, paints and canvases strewn about everywhere, an on-the-point-of-being-discarded mistress weeping dejectedly on the stairs, fungus on the walls, and an enormous overdraft at the bank or, better still, absolutely no money at all. Unvarnished, music-less, Puccini.
But it just didn’t work out for me. I have to live in an orderly manner; I’d tidy up the attic in a flash, scrub the pots and pans, and send the mistress back to her mother. Or husband. And keep what money I had, as frugally as a miser, in a sock beneath my mattress…
If this recipe is any indication he should have written a cookbook as well The Dirk Bogarde Estate. And, if I were a publisher I would reissue his complete works.
There is something so deeply satisfying with a paragraph as finely crafted as this – think about your favorite books… Did they grab you from the outset? Tell me all about them, my darlings, as always, I am ravenous for a good read.
Merci beaucoup! Vickie