"John Kessel - Buffalo" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kessel John)

the audience at which such a farrago must be aimed depresses
him. This is art as fodder. Yet the theater is filled, and
the people are held in rapt attention. This only depresses
Wells more. If these citizens are the future of America
then the future of America is dim.

An hour into the film the antics of an anthropomorphized
chimpanzee, a scene of transcendent stupidity which
nevertheless sends the audience into gales of laughter,
drives Wells from the theater. It is still mid-evening. He
wanders down the avenue of theaters, restaurants and clubs.
On the sidewalk are beggars, ignored by the passers-by. In
an alley behind a hotel Wells spots a woman and child
picking through the ashcans beside the restaurant kitchen.

Unexpectedly, he comes upon the marquee announcing "Duke
Ellington and his Orchestra." From within the open doors of
the ballroom wafts the sound of jazz. Impulsively, Wells
buys a ticket and goes in.

------------------------------------------------


KESSEL AND his cronies have spent the day walking around
the mall, which the WPA is re-landscaping. They've seen the
Lincoln Memorial, the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the
Smithsonian, the White House. Kessel has his picture taken
in front of a statue of a soldier--a photo I have sitting on
my desk. I've studied it many times. He looks forthrightly
into the camera, faintly smiling. His face is confident,
unlined.

When night comes they hit the bars. Prohibition was
lifted only last year and the novelty has not yet worn off.
The younger men get plastered, but Kessel finds himself
uninterested in getting drunk. A couple of them set their
minds on women and head for the Gayety Burlesque; Cole,
Kessel and Turkel end up in the Paradise Ballroom listening
to Duke Ellington.

They have a couple of drinks, ask some girls to dance.
Kessel dances with a short girl with a southern accent who
refuses to look him in the eyes. After thanking her he
returns to the others at the bar. He sips his beer. "Not
so lucky, Jack?" Cole says.

"She doesn't like a tall man," Turkel says.

Kessel wonders why Turkel came along. Turkel is always
complaining about "niggers," and his only comment on the