73 Comments

What a fantastic read!! I wanted to cry for Gary. There have been days like that a century ago.

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This was a fantastic read. Thank you for the lovely character study, Sherman. This Gary is anything but temporary.

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Wow! such much to say - but actually you said it! Poverty totally sucks, and brings to surface a degree of desperation no matter which way you turn. As if every decision is only marginally acceptable, or is it marginally despicable.

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Soundtrack of my life 2006. October actually. Huge remonumentation project for Iron County, MI. All by myself. I do'ed it.

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Why the name of the Roberto-Clemente-award-winning Mariner to be the asshole boss? Oh! Because Anna was going to the navy?

It’s such a great sad story. It’s like Raymond Carver but real. Real. I could smell him.

And Harold Reynolds. I wonder if he ever met a Diamond….. Oh! Like baseball Diamond, right?

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All the unintended baseball! My Mariners subconscious! I'm going to change the name to something not so famous, even though it's only famous to dedicated baseball fans. And thanls for the kind words.

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I can almost smell the pizza and the funk.

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Hahahahaha!

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A stream of unconsciousness. Graspy swirls down a dirty brook. Reminds me of that Paul Simon song Diamonds on the Bottom of Her Feet. Has that same gritty feel.

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I love that song!

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...rented out inadequate rooms to the inadequately employed. 🔥🔥

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Thank you, Wendy.

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“Maybe that's all we should expect from people. Just a thin slice of decency.” Beautiful

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Thank you.

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"a thin slice of decency". What a succinct definition of what our world needs right now. thank you

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Thank you, Jeanne.

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Your last story really made me want donuts and now this one really makes me want pizza, ha. Also, the fact that you make a James Dean reference makes me love it even more! Sooo great!!!

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Thank you, Dorothy!

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I opened your email this morning because I was procrastinating and it seemed a more acceptable activity than staring out the window at my favorite tree 😂

I told myself I'd read the first paragraph and then do work to "earn" reading the rest. But of course I got hooked and read the whole damn thing. Well done & thank you.

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Thank you!

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Love the story. Reminds me of Raymond Carver.

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It’s better than Carver, imo. In Carver’s stories you feel like the fly on the way. I felt involved in Sherman’s story.

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That's the ultimate compliment. Thank you!

Here's a link to me reading a Carver story for The New Yorker podcast.

https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/fiction/sherman-alexie-reads-raymond-carver

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Very cool. I'm obsessing over heating efficiency options for my home and caught up in the moment. Will finish this later. Excellent'e

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"Heating Efficiency Options" is a great title for a short story.

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A story about scarcity, dinosaurs, & sunlight. Scarcity is the mother of all genius Injun-knew-it-y. The heats lamps are lovely btw. Should have done this a long time ago.

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Harold Reynolds had a lifetime average of .258 with 21 home runs. The pepperoni stats reminded me of this. This was fun to read, Sherman and binge watching people - that line was funny to me. Thank you!

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Hahahhahaha. My Mariners subconscious was in play!

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To be fair, the stats on the pepperoni made me look up his stats! I do not remember that stuff - :-)

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Gary’s the kind of philosopher I’d of dated despite that smellly shirt. Just out of sheer fascination over what he was thinking. A kind of Candide. But. the credo. « moi, j’observe ».

You gave these characters flesh.

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Thank you, Patris. I imagine Candide would do well on Match.com.

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Thank god my generation didn’t have that available. But he was optimistic as hell. Always appreciated.

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!!!!

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