A Book of Common Prayer

she remembers she bled...

The story here reminded me a lot of a collection of stories by Deborah Eisenberg, though I found Didion's treatment of similar material a lot less tedious. The material didn't interest me a lot and neither did the characters, but the thing is just so well written that it was hard to put it down in spite of its lack, for me, of surface appeal. The Bogart character felt pulled right out of Gaddis and, though he was a vile character, his funny portrayal probably helped keep me in the book.