Robert Monday’s Reviews > Women > Status Update

"Nothing was in tune. People just blindly, grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods, zen, surfing, ballet, hypnotism, orgies, India, painting, writing, backpacking, yoga, gambling, drinking, hanging around, frozen yogurt, Beethoven, Bach, Buddha, suicide, New York City, and then it all evaporated fell apart. People had to find things to do while waiting to die. I guess it was nice to have a choice."

I was drawn to all the wrong things: I like to drink, I was lazy, I didn’t have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of nonbeing, and I accepted it. I didn’t make for an interesting person. I didn’t want to be interesting, it was too hard. On the other hand, when I got drunk, I screamed, went crazy, got all out of hand. One kind of behavior didn’t fit the other. I didn’t care.

"The first fight was good one, lots of blood and courage. There was was something to be learned about writing from watching boxing matches. It was wordless, like a house burning, or an earthquake or a flood, or a woman getting out of a car. I knew that someday I would write about Katherine and that it would be hard. It was easy to write about whores, but to write about a good woman was much more difficult."