11 Comments
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Anthony Van Witsen's avatar

Definitely one of those stories that shows you what a story can be.

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Rona Maynard's avatar

I have read this astonishing story a number of times without noticing the sentence you chose as your point of entry. I've often wondered if the story came to him in a dream; it has that jangled, disorienting narration. Either way, I think Schwartz must have paid close attention to dreams and their revelations.

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Rhonda Strickland's avatar

I came to this as "one of the lucky few with a first reading ahead of you" and I'm now "in a state of hushed awe." How have I never known this story until now? Every piece of it amazes. Every detail carries that 'time-sickness' you so astutely zeroed in on. The wave crashing on the beach is breath taking; the best description of a breaking wave I've ever read. Thank you so much for this story and your insights!

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Ben Dolnick's avatar

Oh wow, thank you Rhonda! I'm so thrilled that I got to introduce the story to at least one person. What a treat.

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Radically accessible poems's avatar

I agree, a wonderful, astonishing story. In the same vein, Sharon Old's poem "I go back to May 1937"

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Ben Dolnick's avatar

Yes, I was thinking about that poem! I wonder if she'd read Schwartz -- I guess she must have.

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Radically accessible poems's avatar

Hard to know.... I will see her this summer and try to remember to ask.

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Debra Hotaling's avatar

The sentence is amazing because it makes you stop, misunderstand and then read again slowly, pulling it apart because the sentence you think exists does not.

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Ben Dolnick's avatar

very well put

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Mary O’Reilly's avatar

"Sometimes an author writes something so good that it constitutes a personal catastrophe." Gah, this is how I feel every time I read your posts here!

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Ben Dolnick's avatar

Ha!

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