Beloved Gravely

If you are ever nostalgic for the 60s and the 70s, you'll enjoy this bittersweet comedy about recovering from the suicide blues, the heartbreak of romance and the death of love. It magically evokes those vanished times. Scribners blessed beloved Gravely with its Maxwell Perkins Prize in 1984. There are several quotable passages, including this one: "For years, I never knew what to call those colored lights, and before I had a name for them the memory was different. It was mystery, and close to myth. But then my omniscient friend told me that the colored lights were called globos illuminados. He said the globo man was famous in that part of Mexico, and much in demand at parties and all public celebrations. I liked the lights much better, though, when they were just a memory without a name - whey they were dreams. And I still think your dreams can rise serenely on the breeze until they self-destruct. I think your dreams are beautiful and awesome and serene. But life's not like that. Life is like the pole. You know there is a prize. You know it is impossible to get there by yourself. But what you don't know is the way the effort will take all your strength and all of your attention, or how the hecklers in the crowd will hope you don't succeed because they are afraid to try." The author's double novel Men Are So Ridiculous: Why I Love Brunettes/Roxana Dreaming is now available.