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272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
Instead of chips, I have before me, in my hands, a pile of pieces of raw meat. The meat feels cold and sticky, soft, between my hands. The moment the roulette wheel begins to turn, the entire room shakes and I see, through the porthole, the black line of the horizon illuminated by the moonlight that begins to rise and fall, in a violent way. I realize that I am on a ship, in the middle of the night, on the high seas, and that a storm is shaking it, and it will undoubtedly turn over and sink at any moment. Then I understand that it is a dream: I have dreamed that the gambling hall suddenly became a liner. I’m lying on the bed, faceup, in the dark, against the damp sheet, hearing, in a vague way, the hum of the fan.
“It’s just that each one,” I hear myself say, “searches in his own way, and finds, a particular thing that he impregnates later with his own magic. Don’t you think?”