Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live

1. Sometimes I believe we are being tested --
Chekhov\'s way of dying --
A bachelor uncle --
Winter in September --
Wideman\'s welcome --
The lonely voice --
Stray thoughts on Kafka --
Eudora Welty, badass --
Walser on Mission Street --
On the beauty of not writing, or, An unnecessary homage to Juan Rulfo --
2. Let me cook you an egg --
Upper Moose Lake, 1990 --
My father\'s gloves --
Unforgivable --
While reading Imre Kertész --
Under all this noise --
Hit and run --
Carter on boredom --
Shameless impostors --
The infinite passion of Gina Berriault --
Since the beginning of time --
Surviving the lives we have --
Every grief-soaked word --
A black boy, a white boy --
A small note from Haiti --
3. And here you are climbing trees --
Mad passionate true love --
Frederick the Great --
An American writer: Victor Martinez --
Cheever in Albania --
All lives are interesting --
Sisters and brothers --
Parting --
What feels like the world --
Virgie walking away --
Cincinnati, 2001 --
Salter --
Early morning thought on Ahab --
All fathers are fictional --
Ronald A. Orner --
Letter from New Melleray, Iowa --
A palm-of-the-hand story --
Night train to Split --
Father\'s death: the final version.