"Thomas M. Disch M - Descending" - читать интересную книгу автора (Disch Thomas M)

тАФIf Jean Valjean had had a charge account, he would have never gone to
prison.

Having thus cheered himself, he settled down to enjoy the ads in the subway
car. Smoke. Try. Eat. Give. See. Drink. Use. Buy. He thought of Alice with her
mushrooms: Eat me.

At 34th Street he got off and entered Underwood's Department Store directly
from the train platform. On the main floor he stopped at the cigar stand and
bought a carton of cigarettes.

"Cash or charge?"

"Charge." He handed the clerk the laminated plastic card. The charge was rung
up.




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Fancy groceries was on 5. He made his selection judiciously. A jar of instant
and a 2-pound can of drip-ground coffee, a large tin of corned beef, packaged
soups and boxes of pancake mix and condensed milk. Jam, peanut butter, and
honey. Six cans of tuna fish. Then, he indulged himself in perishables:
English cookies, and Edam cheese, a small frozen pheasantтАФeven fruitcake. He
never ate so well as when he was broke. He couldn't afford to.
"$14.87."

This time, after ringing up his charge, the clerk checked the number on his
card against her list of closed or doubtful accounts. She smiled
apologetically and handed the card back.

"Sorry, but we have to check."

"I understand."

The bag of groceries weighed a good twenty pounds. Carrying it with the
exquisite casualness of a burglar passing before a policeman with his loot, he
took the escalator to the bookshop on 8. His choice of books was determined by
the same principle as his choice of groceries. First, the staples: two
Victorian novels he had never read, Vanity Fair and Middlemarch; the Sayers
translation of Dante, and a two-volume anthology of German plays, none of
which he had read and few he had even heard of. Then the perishables: a
sensational novel that had reached the best seller list via the Supreme Court,
and two mysteries.

He had begun to feel giddy with self-indulgence. He reached into his jacket