Neil (“War”)
Neil is the first-person narrator of “War” in which he relates a story from 1940 when he was ten years old and visiting his friend Arthur Robertson. From there, he heads out to spend vacation with his family on a farm they go to every summer where he learns from his brother Bud that their dad has enlisted in the army. What follows is childish attempt to coerce his father into not going and the lessons that come from growing up.
Harper and Renalda Dewey (“Lemonade”)
Harper is the young son of Renalda. Since World War II, Harper is fatherless and Renalda husbandless. An already large house takes on additional emptiness as Renalda sinks deeper and deeper into a liquor-soaked spiral of isolation and economic deprivation which eventually drives young Harper to seek additional income by selling lemonade. Spiked with his mother’s gin.
Effie (“About Effie”)
The opening line of this story is “I don’t know how to begin Effie” but the greater problem is the narrator is equally confused about how to end his story about her as well as everything in the between. Of course, it’s not really his fault; every direct query to the young girl produces an oblique response from her. She is an enigma. Worth noting is the story is narrated by the same Neil who from “War” l and his brother Bud also make a brief appearance in her story.
Ezra Pound (“Daybreak at Pisa”)
This story is introduced by the author as scene from a work-in-progress. That work is a play about the famous poet Ezra Pound during a very specific and particular moment in his life: his imprisonment after World War II. Literally kept a prisoner inside a cage, Pound is presented as being on the verge of collapse into utter madness.
Alicia and Arthur Anderson (“Hello Cheeverland, Goodbye”)
Alicia writes and Arthur produces; they are a team looking to make it big in in television. The arrival of a strange introducing himself as Ishmael excites them with potential. He has written a novel they plan to turn into a movie-of-the-week for TV and so Ishmael is allowed to live in the room formerly occupied by the maid, Rosetta, who has recently left.
