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“Vintage,” the kid said “There’s a difference”

Lola gathered her papers and stood up

“Leaving?” the kid asked “So soon?” He stood up and fished around in the back pocket of his hideous plaid pants They were not even Burberry plaid, Lola thought, which she could have excused He handed her a card THAYER CORE, it read In the bottoht-hand corner was a 212 phone number “Now that you know my name, will you tell me yours?” he said

“Why would I do that?” Lola asked

“New York’s a tricky place,” he said “And I’m the joker”

9

A feeeks later, James Gooch sat in the office of his publisher “Books are likehis hand as if to diset asfirst week, and then drop off from there There’s no traction any new every week And then there are the big corporations All they care about is the bottoet new product out there Makes the It’s heinous, corporations controlling creativity It’s worse than governanda”

“Uh-huh,” James said He looked around Redmon’s new office and felt sad The old office used to be in a town house in the West Village, filled with manuscripts and books and frayed Oriental carpets that Redrandmother’s house in the South There was an old down-filled yellow couch that you sat on while you waited to see Redazines and watched the pretty girls go in and out Redreats back then He published new talent and edgy fiction, and his writers were going to be the future giants Red for a while—up until about 1998, Jaan to take over

JalassThere was a view of the Hudson River in the distance, but it was seneric space

“What we’re publishing now is an entertainment product,” Redmon continued Red, Jaht, and found comfort in this fact “Oakland’s a perfect exareat anymore, but it doesn’t matter He still sells copies—even for him, not as many But it’s the same story with everyone” Redmon threw his hands into the air “There’s no art anymore Fiction used to be an art form No more Good, bad, it doesn’t matter The public is only interested in the topic ‘What’s it about?’ they ask ‘Does it reat books are about only one thing—life’ But they don’t get that anymore They want to know the topic If it’s about shoes or abducted babies, they want to read it And we don’t do that, James We couldn’t even if anted to”

“We certainly couldn’t,” Jareed

“’Course not,” Redreat book, James, an actual novel, but I don’t want you to be disappointed We’ll definitely get on the list, right away, I hope But as to how long we’ll stay on the list…”

“It doesn’t matter to me,” James said “I didn’t write the book to sell copies I wrote it because it’s a story I needed to tell” And I won’t be corrupted by Redht “I still believe in the public The public knows the difference And they’ll buy what’s good,” he added stubbornly

“I don’t want you to have your heart broken,” Redmon said

“I’ht years old,” James said “My heart’s been broken for about forty years”