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"Clean and Bright"
My short story "Clean and Bright" has been published at the Chicago hub of the online journal Joyland. Special thanks to editor Levi Stahl.
This is one of only a handful of new stories that I've finished over the past few years, which for some reason has been a period of fairly low creativity for me. The story is a direct response to Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place", and is told from the perspective of the lonely old man who whiles away the hours of his life in the cafe in Hemingway's story. I find it interesting that I'd be so inspired by Hemingway - I've never read any of his novels, and he's not even one of my favorite authors (I've tried writing stories that riff on Nelson Algren and George Ade, with little success) but I still liked this story of his enough to create one of my own. Odd how inspiration goes.
May 21, 2009 in Fiction | Permalink
Comments
I've read a fair amount of Hemingway, and I have to confess that I can't stand his characters. Thoroughly unpleasant people. They give me headaches.
Curiously, I've also thought (though not seriously) of writing a story riffing on his famous tale. I'd call mine "A cool, dark place" and my character would go there to recover from the headaches he gets from reading Hemingway!
Congratulations on the publication. I'm going to read it next!
Posted by: Paul Lamb at May 22, 2009 4:14:05 PM
Great story, Pete, linked to it from my joint.
Sorry I missed the reading!
Posted by: Tim at May 29, 2009 3:11:44 PM
Thanks, and that's okay about the reading. I still managed a posse anyway - my wife, plus Ben Tanzer in an unexpected appearance.
Posted by: Pete at Jun 2, 2009 1:39:14 PM
