I thought he'd go with me to see a doctor and we'd
find out what was wrong with himI thought he'd
tell me why he'd shot himself in the head and how
a man survives that sort of thingThe answer
seemed to be, "With seizures and a lot of trouble
reading the fine print Maybe he'd even be able
to tell me why his employer had a bee in her
bonnet about keeping Ilse off the islandAnd the
capper: I'd decide on what came next in the life
of Edgar Freemantle, the Great American Primitive
None of those things actually happened, at least
for awhileLife does produce changes, and the end
results are sometimes explosive, but in soap
operas and in real life, big bangs often have a
long fuse
Wireman did agree to go see a doctor with me and
"get his head examined," but not until March
February was too busy, he saidWinter residents -
what Wireman called "the monthlies," as chanel black wallet if they
were menstrual periods instead of tenants - would
start moving into all the Eastlake properties the
338
coming weekendThe first snowbirds to arrive
would be the ones Wireman liked leastThese were
the Godfreys from Rhode Island, known to Wireman
(and hence to me) as Joe and Rita Mean DogThey
came for ten weeks every winter and stayed in the
house closest to the Eastlake estateThe signs
warning of their Rotties and their Pit Bull were
out; Ilse and I had seen themWireman said Joe
Mean Dog was an ex-Green Beret, in a tone of voice
which seemed to indicate that explained everythingDirisko won't even get out of his car when he
has a package for them," Wireman saidHe was
referring to the UPostal Service's fat and
jolly representative on the south end of Casey and
all of Duma KeyWe were sitting on the sawhorses
in front of the Mean Dog house a day rolex vintage women's watch or two before
the Godfreys were scheduled to arriveThe
crushed-shell driveway was glistening a damp pink
Wireman had turned on the sprinklers"He just
leaves whatever he's got at the foot of the
mailbox post, honks, and then rolls wheels for El
PalacioAnd do I blame him? Non, non, Nannette
"Wireman, about the doctor-"
"March, muchacho, and before the Ides
339
"You're just putting it off," I saidI have only one busy season, and this be
itI got caught a little off-guard last year, but
it's not going to happen this time aroundIt
can't happen this time around, because this year
Miss Eastlake's going to be far less capable of
pitching inAt least the Mean Dogs are returners,
known quantities, and so are the BaumgartensI
like the Baumgartens
"Either of them girls?" I asked, thinking about
Elizabeth's prejudice concerning daughters and
Duma
"Nope, both the chanel jumbo bag kind of boys who ought to have GOT
IT MADE BUT DON'T HOLD IT AGAINST US stamped on
their foreheadsThe people coming into the other
four houses are all newI can hope that none of
them will be the rock-and-roll-all-night, partyevery-
day type, but what are the odds?"
"Not good, but you can at least hope they left
their Slipknot CDs home
"Who's Slipknot? What's Slipknot?"
"Wireman, you don't want to knowEspecially not
while you're busy working yourself into a stateWireman is just explaining February on
Duma Key, muchachoI'm going to be fielding
everything from emergency queries about what to do
if one of the Baumgarten boys gets stung by a
jellyfish to where Rita Mean Dog can get a fan for
her grandmother, who they'll probably stash in the
back bedroom again for a week or soYou think
Miss Eastlake's getting on? I've seen Mexican
mummies hauled through the roxanne mulberry streets of Guadalajara
on the Day of the Dead who looked better than
Gramma Mean DogShe's got two basic lines of
conversationThere's the inquisitive line - 'Did
you bring me a cookie?' - and the declarative -
'Get me a towel, Rita, I think that last fart had
a lump in it'"
I burst out laughing
Wireman scraped a sneaker through the shells,
creating a smile with his footBeyond us, our
shadows lay on Duma Key Road, which was paved and
smooth and evenFarther south was
a different story"The answer to the fan problem,
should you care, is Dan's Fan CityIs that a
great name, or what? And I'll tell you something:
I actually like solving these problemsDefusing
341
little crisesI make folks a hell of a lot
happier here on Duma Key than I ever did in
court
But you haven't lost the knack for leading people
away from the things you don't want to discuss, chanel jumbo flap bag I
thought

. . Twenty-seven years ago I was fortunate enough to be associated with the publication of John Dos Passos' Three Soldiers. In no year since have I felt the same surge of excitement for a war novel -- not until the manuscript of Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead was readied for publication.
There is no direct parallel between the two books. The world has changed and toughened since Dos Passos wrote. The Naked and the Dead is a tougher book, one that reflects the variables that time and change have introduced. But, like its distinguished predecessor, Norman Mailer's book is essentially the story of men themselves rather than of their sometimes purposeless fighting. These men who tear their hearts out trying to capture an island from the Japanese are the product of the years they have lived. They have been formed by their wives, their sweethearts, their farms, their jobs, their colleges. To each, war has been an activating agent.
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 memory. They 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.
Stanley W. Rinehart Jr.
Rinehart

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