Excerpt
From Small Lives
Small Lives by Pierre Michon
Let us explore a genesis for my pretensions. Was one of my ancestors a fine captain, a young, insolent ensign, or fiercely taciturn slave trader? East of the Suez, some uncle gone back to Barbary in a cork helmet, wearing jodhpur boots and a bitter smile, a stereotype warmly endorsed by younger branches of the family, by renegade poets, all those dishonored ones full of honor, shadow, and memory, the black pearls of the family trees? Did I have some colonial or seafaring antecedent? The province I am speaking of has no coasts, beaches, or reefs; no exalted...
Copyright © 2008 by Pierre Michon