"when I began my journey to what my father called... the 'Sodom' of the north:" "New York." "Call me Stingo, which was the nickname I was know by those days." "IfI was called anything at all." "I've barely saved enough money to write my novel... for I wanted to be and hoped or dreamed to be a writer." "But my spirit had remained locked... unacquainted with love and a stranger to death." "Even back then cheap apartments were hard to find in Manhattan." "And so began my voyage of discovery... in a place as strange as Brooklyn." "I know..." "You're thinking about the pink." "Everybody does." "See, my late husband Saul, he's got his bargain." "Hundreds and hundreds of gallons of this... navy surplus paint." "See, I guess they didn't have any use for pink on those boats." "Ok, I'II take it." "wait Whitman." ""Yetta has heralded the arrival in the Ethnic Kingdom of the pink palace... of a young novelist from the south." "Your neighbors invite you upstairs to dine with us in Sophie's room... directly above yours tonight at eight." "The book is a token of welcome... from one of brooklyn's earliest bards to brooklyn's newest." "Sophie and Nathan"." "Whore!" "Don't go!" "Don't go!" "Nathan, wait!" "Wait!" "believe me, Nathan!" "I told you to get go away!" "Stay away from my work!" "Nathan, no!" "I'm not lying, you know!" "You're lying." "I'm not!" "You're lying." "please, don't go!" "Don't go away from me, please!" "You know we need each other!" "We need each other!" "Me, need you?" "Let me tell you something!" "I need you Iike a goddamn disease I can't name!" "I need you Iike a case of Anthrax, hear me?" "Like "triquonosys"!" "I need you Iike a biliary calculus, paIegra, encephalitis..." ""Bright's" disease, for Christ's sake!" ""parsinoma" of the brain!" "I need you..." "like death!" "Hear me?" "Like death!" "No, Nathan!" "Go back to Krakow, baby." "Back to Krakow!" "well, good evening" "Did you have a good time?" "Did you enjoy our little show?" "Do you get off on a little bit of eve's dropping?" "My door was open." "I just wondered what was going on." "Your door was open?" "You wondered what was going on?" "well, shut my mouth if it isn't our new literate figure from the South." "Too bad I won't be around for a little lively conversation." "We would've had great time shooting this shit." "We could've talked about sports..." "Southern sports like..." "Iynching niggers, or coons I think you all call them there." "So long cracker." "See you in another life." "Are you OK?" "Yes." "Yeah." "I'm very sorry." "That's not the way he... he really is, you know?" "Don't apologize, all right?" "I Iive downstairs here." "If there's anything you want..." "Thank you." "You're very kind." "Come on downstairs here." "No, I'm all right." "I'm Stingo." "please... forgive us." "Yeah?" "We had invited you to dinner." "That's very thoughtful of you." "Listen, I'm very often working and I type at night." "But if it's going to bother you, I don't want to..." "Oh, no!" "When I was little girl my father... type and I go to sleep to that sound." "It'II make me feel..." "How do you say that?" "Secure." "Secured." "Your father was a writer?" "You know, my father was... my father was professor of law." "He wrote articles... warning college people of the nazi threat... and trying to get help for those Jews that "was" persecuted." "So..." "Yeah, that sound of typing will make me think of my father... and of his goodness." "You wouldn't want to come in, would you?" "Maybe some other time." "So, if you forgive me..." "Good night." "So, "Stinko", yeah?" ""Stingo"." ""Stingo", yes!" "I never hear that name." "There's no "K" in there, though." "I got it." "It's a "G"." "Yeah, it's nice!" "It's a friendly..." "you know, happy sound." "I Iike it." "Nathan!" "Oh, Nathan!" "Oh, God!" "Why can't you see, Sophie?" "We are dying." "Rise and shine, honey child." "Lift up your bones." "The grit is on the brittle, the corn is on the pone." "Hurry up." "You're going to have a picnic out and down by the seashore." "Good morning, Stingo." "Good morning." "We wanted to make friends... and to take you out on this beautiful summer day!" "We want you to come up and to have breakfast with us." "And then..." "Yes." "Coney island." "Coney island!" "Oh, boy!" "Sorry about last night." "I know what you're thinking:" ""These people are strange"." "On Sundays we like to dress up a bit differently and go out." "OK." "OK?" "I knew you'd understand!" "You see, everybody out there dresses the same." "Look at those poor, pathetic people out there." "Look at them." "Drones." "AII walking down the streets looking alike, wearing... the same dread, boring uniform." "You're boring!" ""Good morning"!" "Look at this God's gift!" "Give me a kiss." "One kiss." "AII right, one kiss." "That's all you deserve." "One more." "I need one more." "No." "I have to have one more." "Nathan!" "Look where my hands have to go." "This is..." "No, Nathan Landau!" "What do you think of that, Stingo?" "Here I am, a nice Jewish boy... pushing thirty..." "I faII crazy in love with a polish Shiksa." "What is that?" "What is a Shiksa?" "A Shiksa?" "Is a "goee" girl." "A lady of a gentile persuasion." "She's a..." "AII right." "I'd just assumed that she was not..." "Jewish, Jewish?" "Yeah." "Jewish?" "No, no, no..." "Sophie is catholic." "That's OK." "But I'm not anymore catholic, so..." "catholic issue." "When I first met this one here... she was a rag and bone and hank of hair." "That was 1 year and a half after the Russians liberated the camp she was in." "Yeah, it looked like something that... scares the birds." "You know, what is that?" "Scare... scarecrow." "I had "scurbut"." "No, no, no!" "She means scurvy." "And typhus, anemia, fever..." "It was a miracle she's emerged from that camp alive." "Right!" "I mean..." "He thought that I had leukemia." "I thought I was dying." "But it was Nathan that see that it was only anemia." "Are you a doctor?" "No, no." "That's my brother's domain." "But I'm a biologist." "Yeah!" "I graduated in Science from Harvard." "And he made MA... in developmental and cellular biology." "I do research now." "He works at pfizer." "A big pharmaceutical house in brooklyn." "Anyway, I took her to this friend of my brother's... a doctor who teaches at columbia presbyterian." "Yeah." "He confirmed my diagnosis." "And we put the little sweetie here... on a massive doses of ferrous sulphate... and she'd bIoomed like a rose." "A rose." "A beautiful fucking rose." "You're something!" "Thank you for making me "to" bloom like a rose." "Not "to" bloom, just "bloom"." "She's so good." "It's about time she was perfect." "So what?" "I mean, this is a ridiculous language!" "There's too many words!" "The word for "velocity":" "OK, there's "fast", "quick"..." ""rapid" and they all mean the same thing." ""Swift", "Speedy"..." ""Hasty"." ""FIit"." ""Brisk"." ""Expeditious"." ""accelerated"." ""Winged"." "No, no!" "Stop it!" "It's ridiculous!" "Oh, in French it's so easy." "You say: "vit"." "Or in poIIish, "szybko" and in Russian, "bistroy"" "It's only in english that it's so complicated!" "How many languages do you know?" "well, my father was a Linguistc, so I mean, I..." "He taught me German, French, Russian, Hungarian... the slavic Languages..." "So, what language I'm butchering now?" "english!" "I bet your father was a very interesting man." "Yeah, my father was... a civilized man." "That's the word, yeah? "civilized"?" "Very good word." "Yeah?" "My father was a civilized man living in a non civilized time." "The civilized, they "was" the first to die." "Do you play the piano?" "No." "I used to play, but I..." "I no Ionger play." "I don't, anymore..." "My mother was a beautiful pianist." "Nathan surprised me with that piano on my birthday!" "I Iove that piece." "When I was a little girl, I..." "I remember, I'd lay in bed... and I'd hear my mother downstairs playing the piano... and the sound of my father's typewriter." "I think no child had a more wonderful father and mother." "And a more beautiful life." "Do you know that song, right?" "Stingo, hit it!" "Suddenly, I shivered violently." "I remembered Nathan's voice that night before." ""Don't you see, Sophie?" "We 're dying"." "I longed desperatly to scape... to pack my bags and flee." "But I did not." "I stayed at Yetta Zimmerman's... and I helped fulfill Sophie's prophecy about the three of us." "We became the best of friends." "Here's an example of how emotionally evocative english can be" "Sophie loved to tell how Nathan saved her life." "Their meeting was, for her... a miracle." "Because I couId not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me." "The carriage held but just our selves and immortality." "Rhymes, rhymes..." "It's not hard enough to understand the language?" "Just everyday life talk." "He has to read us rhymes!" "...what the beauty of the language can be... when written by artists." "I Iook forward to seeing you next week." "And remember..." "You must not get discouraged." "You'II see." "One morning you'II wake up and find you've been dreaming in english!" "Excuse me." "Who did he say wrote that poem?" "Dickens." "emile Dickens." "Thank you." "Are you all right, Miss Zawistowska?" "Yes." "Thank you, I'm very fine." "I'm a little tired." "I noticed that you've been looking..." "well... a little delicate lately." "I hope I'm not being too personal." "No!" "No, I..." "could you help me with that?" "Thank you." "Thank you for your... concern." "Good bye." "Excuse me, sir." "could you tell me what..." "Where would be that listing in catalog file... for..." "19th century American poet..." "emile Dickens, please?" "In the catalog room on the Ieft." "But you won't find any such listing." "I won't find that listing?" "Why won't I... find it?" "charles Dickens is an english writer." "There's no American poet by the name of Dickens." "I'm sorry." "No, that is, I'm sure, American poet." "emile Dickens." "Listen!" ""D-I..." "I told you!" "There's no such person." "Do you want me to draw you a picture?" "I'm telling you, you hear me?" "AII right." "It's all right, it's all right..." "Just lie still." "Let the doctor take care of everything." "You're so beautiful." "Yes!" "How did you get to be so beautiful?" "I think..." "I think that I'm going to die." "No, no, no..." "No, your pulse..." "Your pulse is fine." "It's steady." "You're going to live to be a hundred." "Why I am so tired?" "The doctor thinks you need to get some color... in that beautiful white skin of yours." "I'm going to take you to see my brother." "He is the best doctor going." "No, Iet you..." "You thought I was a doctor?" "No, I'm a biologist." "You've been eating properly lately?" "Yes!" "Oh, yes!" "I am..." "I am six months in here, in U.S. and... so I eat "more good" now than in my Iife." "You could've fallen behind with iron and never had a chance to catch up." "Look, I'm going to go now." "But may I come back later?" "Don't answer that." "I'II be back." "OK?" "Yeah, OK!" "How long you have been there?" "Enough to get dinner started." "You look much better." "What did you do here?" "It looks beautiful." "We're having calf's liver... prepared "Veneziano" and special vinaigrette sauce..." "loaded with iron." "And Ieeks... filled with iron." "also will improve the timber of your voice." "You know, Nero had Ieek served every day..." "to deepen his voice." "I didn't know that." "So that he could croon while he had Seneca drown and squirted." "Let me help you with that." "No!" "You're not to move." "The "madame" taste the wine?" ""Chateux Margoux de... 1937"?" "My God!" "special day... special wine." "You know, when you..." "When you live a good life..." "like a saint and then you die... that must be what they make you "to" drink in paradise." "Thomas WoIfe!" "It's written in polish!" "Oh God!" "What does WoIfe sound like in polish?" "a stone, a leaf, an unfound door." "Of a stone..." "The door." "The door." "Of all the forgotten faces." "Forgotten faces." "God!" "This is a first... hearing Thomas WoIfe read aloud in polish." "The firstfor me too, hearing WoIfe read in english." "If that poor bastard have heard you read this aloud in polish..." "he would've written in polish." "I don't think so." "Oh, yeah!" "Oh, yes!" "You were..." "You were in that concentration camp?" "Yeah, I can't..." "I can't talk about that, though." "I'm sorry." "I have a neck to stick my big nose where it's got no business." "I... want so much to know you." "To be close to you." "emily Dickenson?" "That's the woman?" "Oh, no!" ""property of Nathan Landau"." "That's you?" "That's me." "It's your book?" "No, it's yours." "Thank you!" "Thank you." ""ample make this bed." "Make this bed with awe;" "In it wait till judgement break... excellent and fair." "Be its mattress straight." "Be its pillow round;" "Let no sunrise yellow noise... interrupt this ground"." "Nathan, my new and dear beloved friend... introduced me to what seemed the answer to my relentless... all consuming "hornyness"." "Before I went into analysis, I was completely frigid." "Can you imagine?" "Now all I can do is think about fucking." "WiIheIm Reich has turned me into a nympho." "I mean, sex on the brain!" "Her name still crawls across my tongue." "Lesley Lapidus." "The door is open, came in!" "hello!" "Boy, look excellent." "Thanks." "What would Iike to drink?" "I'II have a..." "I don't know, Iet's see..." "I'd Iike a red wine." "Oh, my God!" "Fuck!" "Fucking fantastic fucking!" "Wait!" "Just let it ring!" "hello, mother." "Fine, fine." "I told you I'd be just fine." "Yeah, plenty." "And I'II make sure that the plants are watered... and that the dog is fed." "well, mother..." "Yes, Daddy." "Your little princess will be good." "OK." "Bye!" "They'II go away for the weekend and the maid is out sick." "And they care about how I will survive for a weekend in this... apartment by myself." "So they stocked the fridge, put a lock on every door... and who knows what else!" "Thus I realized that Lesley and I would be left to frolic here alone." "My cup ran over." "Oh, my cup turned into a spillway flooding across the spotless carpet... out the door down Pierrepot Street... across all the twilit carnal reaches ofBrooklyn." "Lesley." "A weekend alone with Lesley." "Have you ever read D.H. Lawrence, "Lady ChatterIey's Lover"?" "No." "He has the answer." "He knows so much about fucking." "He says..." "He says that when you fuck you go to the Dark Gods." "Stingo, I really mean it." "To fuck is to go to the Dark Gods." "Let's go to the Dark Gods!" "What is going on?" "You don't understand..." "I can't go all the way." "I've reached a plateau in my analysis." "Before I reach this plateau of vocalization I couId never say... any of those words." "those AngIo-Saxon four letter words that everybody should be able to say" "Now I'm completely able to vocalize." "Lesley Lapidus could say "fuck" but she could not do it." "Nathan!" "?" "I'm so glad you're..." "Yep, little Stingo." "Stingo?" "Yeah?" "You want to come up and have a night cap with me?" "Sure." "When Nathan gets involved he forgets all about the time..." "Stingo, you look... very nice." "You're wearing your "cock sucker"." "My seersucker." "Oh yeah." "Right, "seersucker"." "I Iove it here." "I'm glad you couldn't sleep." "You hurt your mouth?" "You talk funny." "I bit my tongue." "You want me to get you something?" "No, please, no." "It just needs to be left alone." "You changed all the furniture around?" "Yeah, you Iike it?" "I do that when I can't sleep, you know?" "It's good, because then you don't have..." "You don't have to think about anything." "well, then I'II try that." "Oh, no." "Stingo..." "You do not have to move furniture." "You will move mountains." "I can't even move my tongue." "Maybe you moved it too much." "Why aren't all the women in the world like you?" "You'd better thank God they're not." "Look at this I see many, many women in your life." "Many beautiful women... who adore you and that make all that love with you." "Sometimes..." "I can see myseIfjust being alone forever." "Oh, Stingo..." "I'm not fair with you." "I think Stingo is so young, he is a talented American." "He doesn't have any real, real problems, but..." "You don't know if I'm talented." "You've never read anything I've written." "I don't ask about your work... and what it is about because I know a writer likes to... be quite about his work." "It's about a boy... a tweIve-year-oId boy..." "And..." "So it's autobiographical?" "To a certain extant, maybe it is." "It takes places in a year, which is the year his mother dies..." "I didn't know your mother died." "When I was 12." "You loved her very much?" "Not enough." "What do you mean, "Not enough"?" "I mean: "Not enough"." "And that's what is so terrible about... outIiving those people that we love, I mean that..." "that quilt." "Your father?" "My father, my mother, my husband." "You were married?" "Yeah, I was married." "And I was very young." "I was married to a... disciple of my father." "Assistant at the University." "Your father was writing nazi articles?" "That probably got him into trouble." "One day I was at the Mass and... they have a..." "I had a..." ""pressentiment" and I... have money for you and I..." "I run out of the church and I go to the University... and I see that the gate is locked and... there were many Germans there... and I saw the professors." "They "was" loading them into the truck... and this one part of canvas has moved away... and I see my father's face and the face of my husband behind him." "And..." "I Iooked and the..." "But the Germans pulled that away and..." "I never saw those faces again." "They took them to Sachsenhausen, but they shot them the next day." "And your mother?" "My mother..." "My mother got... t-t-tubercuIosis." "tuberculosis and..." "She is very sick, you know?" "She's dying." "I can't do anything." "But I think if I couId get that meat for my mother..." "I would make her strong, so I go to the country and... the peasants, they're selling... ham." "And I go with that black market money and I buy that and..." "I bring it back." "But it's forbidden for all the meet goes to the Germans" "If you get caught..." "So I hid the ham under my skirt on the train." "I'm pretending that I'm pregnant, you know?" "I was so afraid!" "I was shaking." "And then that German... who was in the front of the train and he saw me." "And I'm sitting there and he "come" up to me... and he "take" under my skirt that ham and..." "So they sent me to Auschwitz." "You were sent to Auschwitz because you stole a ham?" "No." "I was sent to Auschwitz because they saw that I was afraid." "You know what that means." "Yeah." "You tried to commit suicide in Auschwitz." "No, it was after that." "After that, I was in..." "After liberation." "After you were safe?" "Yes, safe, yeah." "I was safe, I was in Sweden." "I was in that refugee camp." "I mean, that was good." "They try to help you, you know?" "They try... but..." "I knew that..." "Christ had turned his face away from me... and that only a Jesus who no Ionger cared for me could... kill those people that I Iove, but..." "leave me alive... with my shame?" "Oh, God." "So I went to that church... and I took the glass I knew was there and I..." "I've cut my wrist." "But I didn't die, of course!" "Of course, not." "Stingo... there's so many things you don't understand." "There's so many things that I can't... that I cannot... tell you." "I want you to trust me." "I want you to trust me." "Just trust me." "Oh, God!" "There's Nathan!" "Nathan!" "Sophie!" "Astrid?" "I'm working night duty at brooklyn hospital this week." "My patient is this old lady who's meaner than my mother!" "well, good night, Astrid." "I'II go to sleep." "That was Astrid, you know." "Maybe I'II leave the door open in case he comes, we could hear him." "So you want another drink?" "Your bottle is empty." "well..." "I know where Nathan keeps another bottle." "Be careful, it's dark in here." "Oh, God." "You'II feel better if we just call him at the lab." "I can't do that." "He doesn't like for me to call him." "You know, at work." "So, anyway..." "I did it an hour ago!" "And there was no answer, so..." "I'm sure the switchboard just shot off." "Yes, I think that's right." "I'm sure of that." "You know, sometimes when he can't sleep... he goes and walks all over the city." "He goes into all these neighborhoods..." "I don't know where he goes, but..." "Once he came back, he had a... black eye and his jaw was all swollen there." "I thought it was broken!" "You know, he could be hurt." "I don't know where he is, but I think we should call the police." "Right now." "I think we'd better wait 2 hours." "Wait till someone is on the switchboard there." "We'II just call him then." "His working lady probably got tired and fell asleep there." "Yeah." "She's probably asleep there." "I'm sure." "I'm sure you're right." "Look at this." "Nazi primer." "He must have everything written about the nazis in those news." "He is obsessed with the nazis who are escaping justice." "Do you suppose all this started after he met you?" "Look, I know I shouldn't tell him about that place, but... what could I do?" "I know it's not my fault that he..." "I can understand." "After all, he is a Jew." "Yes, but don't you think that I'm angry too?" "That these men, these terrible nazi leaving my father..." "Such a good man who tries to help Jews is killed!" "Don't you think that I am angry?" "But you don't understand Nathan." "You don't know him." "What he might do, you know?" "Sometimes I think..." "What do you think?" "What do you think, polish baby?" "Oh, Nathan!" "You're all right?" "I am." "What about the two of you?" "I was so frightened, you know?" "I was stupid!" "I got so scared that something had happened to you." "I would've called but I didn't want to wake you." "We're on to something in our work." "Something big." "Very big." "That's wonderful, Nathan." "Yeah, wonderful." "But you were here... with Sophie." "Stingo, you know, he..." "Stingo came home from his date!" "So I heard the door and thought it was you." "So I run out, but..." "Anyway, I called him and said why don't you come up for a drink?" "Because I was worried and he was a very good friend... and he was keeping me company." "So now you've seen my "sanctum sanctorum"." "Now you know all of Nathan's darkened hours secrets." "hardly." "You wipe out six million Jews... and the world left them escape." "Enjoying our Iynching party southern boy?" "I expect you might have a Iot to teach me there." "I'm going to call it tonight." "Stingo, wait." "Stingo is our best friend, why do you do that?" "He is our best friend, he deserves only our thanks." "Listen to me." "I was frightened, I didn't know what to do here." "It's true." "Forgive me old buddy." "I'm sorry." "Of course my beloved Sophie is right" "I must've got crazy with the work, you know?" "We're on to something big." "I know, darling." "I'm just another mad scientist." "I'm leaving." "Tomorrow." "Thank you." "Thanks for taking care of Sophie." "AII right." "Ah, Nathan!" "I'm sorry." "I said I'm sorry already!" "darling, I'm home." "Right!" "Are you all right?" "Are you sure?" "Yeah." "Don't you catch things in the South?" "How's it going?" "Fine." "What's going on?" "Think fast!" "You came and wreck everything." "Yetta, you know, always provides the best... the best you can find in brooklyn!" "Oh, shit!" "Sophie should be taking a nap after work." "She just doesn't sleep anymore." "Not since the war." "How's it going?" "Fine." "Thank you." "Let me take a look at those." ".-No." "Come on!" "I won't interfere, I won't make any comments, I won't even..." "Look, I'II show this to no one!" "No one is seeing this." "I'm not no one." "I'm a friend." "Don't you have those down South?" ""Friend", a person attached to another by feeling and affection." "A supporter." "I vowed to my self when I started.." "this I was not going to show it to anyone 'til I finish it." "Then I'd go for that comfort person." "well..." "OK." "You're just terrified that somebody don't like it." "Terrified as in filled with terror." "As sharp over mastering intense fear" "AII right, all right!" "That will give you some idea." "Oh, my God!" "What about the page in the typewriter?" "No, this is a..." "Nathan!" "Stop!" "AII right." "Stingo!" "What is the worst that can happen?" "I may discover you can't write!" "Bye!" "Shit!" "Fuck!" "Nathan, get back here!" "I'II give it back, old buddy!" "Fine, right!" "Stingo, wait a minute!" "Wait!" "Nathan has ordered me to take you to the movies." "He made me your guardian while to read that." "Yes, so you can't do no violence to yourself now." "Nathan must have finished that." "Yeah." "Come on, Iet's go see." "I think I'II wait here alone." "No, come on!" "If he's got something to say..." "let him come down and tell me." "Don't be silly." "Bravo!" "On this bridge on which... so many great Americans writers stood and reached out for words... to give America its voice..." "looking toward the land that gave them Whitman... from its Eastern edge dreamt his country's future and gave it words... on this span of which..." "Thomas WoIfe and Hart Crane wrote... we welcome Stingo into that pantheon of the Gods... whose words are all we know of immortality." "To Stingo!" "How could I've failed to have the most helpless crush on such... a generous mind and life enlarging mentor?" "Nathan was utterly, fatally glamorous." "Sophie!" "Where are you?" "Stingo!" "Nathan!" "We did it!" "What?" "What did you do?" "Nathan!" "Remember I told you we were on to something big?" "Today we cracked it." "What?" "What, what?" "I can't tell you." "You'II hear about it all tonight." "No, what's a few hours make?" "No, I can't tell you!" "pretty soon the whole world will know... one of the greatest medical advances of all time." "I can't tell you!" "I'm talking about StockhoIm." "Next year, the three of us together." "I'm talking to go nobeI-fucking-prize!" "AII right!" "Sorry, kid." "I'm going to get there first!" "Wait!" "I got something for you to celebrate!" "Oh, Nathan!" "What's that?" "One for you." "What is it?" "These go with that one." "Oh, God!" "Oh, Nathan!" "What a beautiful dress!" "Do you Iike it?" "Try it on. put it on." "Come on, try it on!" "Oh, Nathan!" "Come on!" "Try it on." "please, I want to see it." "I'm not going to do that." "I just want to see it on you!" "hold it up." "It doesn't have a top." "You're the top." "Nathan, it's beautiful!" "I've to get back to the laboratory." "Why don't you stay with us?" "Tonight we'II celebrate." "Look at all this." "I can't." "I got to get back to work." "Tonight we'II celebrate." "Make sure Sophie gets back home safe." "Wear those clothes tonight." "Look at these shoes!" "Tonight." "Tonight I'II look at it." "Oh, my darling." "I'm so proud of you." "Tonight!" "You were the one who gave me the idea to get it." "I think it's like mine." "It's a beautiful watch, yes?" "Dr. Kats, my boss, and his wife..." "Her family is in thejeweIIery business, so he took me there..." "to get it engraved." "It opens at the top, Iike mine." "What?" "Don't get you fingers..." "You got your fingerprints all over it." "Nathan won't know." "Anyway, do you think he will like it?" "Sure, he will." "I think he'II be very pleased." "It... you know, it cost... a great deal of money." "More than I couId afford." "Anyway, who cares?" "Today, money doesn't seem very important." "Get the champagne!" "He's going to..." "Get them!" "I got it!" "Champagne is in the back!" "I couldn't remember Nathan's brand when I went to the store." "Yeah?" "What kind?" "The guy at the shop said... something Rose." "He said it's very good." "Surprise!" "Surprise!" "Is it your brand?" "I couldn't remember." "Stingo got you that champagne." "That's sweet." "It's beautiful." "Look at you." "Yeah!" "Do you Iike?" "Very becoming." "Fidelity would become you more." "What?" "Haven't I told you... that the only thing I absolutely demanded of you... the only single thing..." "is fidelity?" "And didn't I tell you that if you ever were with this guy Kats... ever again outside of work, and if you walk 10 feet with this cheap schmuck... this fraud, that I 'd break your ass?" "Yeah, but." "This afternoon he brings you home again in his car." "You spent the whole fucking afternoon with him didn't you." "Or should, I say you spent the whole afternoon with him fucking?" "Nathan!" "Did you try on your new dress for him?" "So he could strip it off you in a cheap hotel room?" "Did he line up your vertebrae in a nice neat line... while he was humping you?" "I bet he does quite a number with that fast chiropractor's dick of his." "Wait!" "Nathan!" "How did you know he took her home?" "You been following her all afternoon?" "Why don't you find out why Kats took her home?" "I think you're going to feel like a fool when you find out why." "please, don't!" "A baby southern artist defending a little poIIack whore." "To bad our celebration will be of more mundane stripe than I intended." "I think you should go." "I'm not going to let you alone with him." "You don't understand..." "You don't have to take this shit!" "Let's just cut out all the ugly shit!" "Yeah, poor this." "Let's celebrate." "You know why?" "We're here to toast you." "But what are we here to toast?" "You're right." "I'm terribly sorry." "That's all right." "I don't know what's come over me." "Here..." "Here is to my best friend..." "and my best girl." "There you are." "Look what I got you, anyway." "I had the wrapping, you know, but I..." "It's beautiful." "Very beautiful." "Do you Iike it?" "If I Iike it?" "I Iove it." "Yes?" "She's just like Stingo's." "It is?" "It has an engraving." "It's beautiful." "beautiful." "This toast is in honor... my complete disassociation... from you two creeps." "Disassociation from you... the Coony Chiropractic cunt of King's County... and you, the dreary dregs of Dixie." "You have not fooled me, young Stingo." "Since you so graciously allowed me to read your magnum Southern opus... about your adolescent seIf-pity..." "for your poor dead mother." "Knock it off, Nathan." "However, look on it optimistically... you might be on the verge of a whole new form... the "Southern Comic Book"!" "And now, my sweet..." "Stin..." "I want to ask you one question that's been burning in my mind for so long." "Well maybe you can explain something to me." "The reason maybe of why you are here..." "Wait... walking the streets... drenched in enticing perfumery... engaged in surreptitious venery with not one... but two, count them, ladies and gentlemen... two chiropractors!" "In short, 'Making hay... while the sun shines' to employ an old bromide... while at Auschwitz, the ghosts of the millions of the dead..." "still seek an answer." "No." "tell me..." "tell me Sophie." "The same anti-Semitism... for which poland has gained such a worldwide recognition... did a similar anti-Semitism guide your own destiny, help you along... protect you in a manner of speaking so you became one of the minuscule.." "handful of people who lived..." "while the millions died?" "tell me." "tell me why." "explanation, please!" "tell me why... old lucky number 11379..." "tell me... why you inhabit the land of the living?" "What splendid little tricks and strategems... sprang from that lovely head of yours to allow you to breath... the clear polish air?" "While the multitudes at Auschwitz choked slowly..." "on the gas?" "No!" "explain!" "Stop it!" "explain!" "Lay off of her!" "Get off of my way!" "Get off of my..." "Stay away!" "Stay out!" "Stay out!" "Get out of here!" "Go away!" "I'm leaving the house, they're here." "I come back, two empty rooms." "No Nathan, no Sophie and the Iast anybody knows he puts her in a cab.." "and he runs off the other way." "I can't tell how hard it is..." "Is this Dr. BIackstock?" "Yes." "I'm a friend of Sophie Zawistowska's and you may have heard of me, Stingo" "Oh, the writer!" "She's very proud ofyou!" "I'm trying to track her down." "But don't you live in the same house?" "She moved out last night." "She called in this morning and wasn't well." "I was worried about her." "She is such a tough girl." "Do you know how I could find her?" "What about the boyfriend?" "I think that's over." "Maybe she went to stay with a friend." "I don't know any friends of hers." "There's this Polish girl who work for a professor at Brooklyn College." "I remember her name." "It was Sonja Wajinska." "Is a woman named Sonja Wajinska work here?" "No, I'm sorry." "She went back to poland six months ago." "But if you Iike, I can give you her address." "Thank you." "Do you know her friend Sophie Zawistowska?" "Yes." "She came here once to visit Sonja, but she did not came back." "I recognized her from my days at the University of Krakow." "She is the daughter of professor Bieganski." "Were you student of his?" "I heard him lecture once." "That was enough." "I know he is very unspoken about the Nazis." "He was crazy about the Nazis." "I think because they hate the Jews as much as he did." "The Nazis killed him." "They came one day and made a clean sweep of all academics." "And they didn't stop to check their political views." "I think you have the wrong man." "Look, I shall show you..." "Zbigniew Bieganki..." "Look, Bieganski... professor of Law at the University of Krakow... from 1919 to 1939... known for his anti-Semitic threats." "A major promuIgator of the ghetto pension rule... which made it illegal for Jewish students... to seat on the same bench as polls." "So..." "I told Yetta I was leaving." "A few weeks before I had received a letter from my father." "He had inherited a small farm and knowing I was running out of money proposed that I'd come back South and live on it." "I could not bear to stay in Brooklyn." "Hello!" "Hello!" "Sophie?" "You're back!" "Oh, yes." "Hello, Yetta." "I came to get the rest of my things, you know?" "Have you heard from Nathan?" "No." "Not a word." "He just came here this morning to take the rest of his things." "OK." "OK." "Stingo?" "Yeah." "I'm sorry about what happened last night." "But I want you to know that Nathan... didn't mean what he said about your book." "well, you know that." "Right?" "I know he really loves your writing." "That doesn't matter anymore." "But I mean..." ""we" will still be friends." "You know I'm leaving." "I'm going home." "It should be a better place for me to write." "We've driven you away." "It has nothing to do with you." "I spoke with Dr. BIackstock today." "Oh, Stingo." "Did you go looking for me there?" "I would've left you a note where I went but..." "I just didn't think of it." "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry you were worried about me." "I thought your friend Sonja might know where you were." "Sonja?" "Sonja Wajinski?" "But she went back to poland." "I know that." "I went to brooklyn college." "She used to work for a Language professor there." "Yes." "I think you met him once." "He knew your father." "Yeah, my father..." "He heard him lecture once... at the University of Krakow where your father taught." "He told you about my father?" "Sophie, why did you lie to me?" "I lied because, you know why?" "I was so afraid..." "I was afraid I'd left alone!" "So..." "Good bye... my friend." "Sophie, I want to understand..." "I'd love to know the truth." "The truth?" "It does not make it easier to understand." "And maybe you think that find out the truth about me... and you'II understand me and then you'd forgive me for all those..." "For all my lies." "I promise I'II never leave you." "You must never promise that." "No one... no one should ever promise that!" "The truth?" "I don't even know what is the truth." "After all these lies I've told..." "My father..." "How can I explain how much I loved my father?" "My father believed that human perfection was a possibilty." "Every night I pray to God... to forgive me for always making a disappointment to my father." "And I pray to him... to make worthy of such a great good man." "I was a grown woman." "I was wholly come of age." "I was a married woman... when I realized I hated my father beyond all words to tell it." "It was winter of 1938." "And my father was working for weeks on the speech he calls..." ""Poland Jewish Problem"." "Orderly I typed those speeches... and I don't hear the words, their meaning, but... this time I came upon a word that I have never heard it before." "The solution for Poland Jewish Problem, he concludes... is "vernichtung"." "Extermination." "I have not meant to go to the ghetto that afternoon... but something made me go there." "I stood there I don't know how long... watching these people that my father has condemned to die." "All these men, these women, these children would be "vernichtung"." "Extermination." "I suddenly remembered that my father is waiting for that speech... and I hurry home to finish the typing but... in my rushing and my haste to finish that..." "I make so many mistakes in the sentences and..." "I run with it to the University and my father has no time... to check that before speaking." "And he get up in front of all those people... and he reads the speech and makes those mistakes... and I see him getting so angry." "And when it was over, he came up to me..." "I was with my husband, of course." "And in front of him and all his colleague he said:" "Zozia... your intelligence is pulp." "pulp." "I didn't have any courage to say:" ""Yes, but what about the Jews?"" "The Jewish people, but..." "After that he didn't trust me anyway." "And neither did my husband." "Afterwards in Warsaw..." "I had lover... who was very, very good to me." "Josef lived with his half-sister Wanda." "She was a leader in the Resistance." "Two weeks later... the Gestapo killed Josef." "They cut his throat." "They had courage." "Oh, God, they had courage!" "Not too long after that, they killed Josef..." "I was arrested." "My children were sent with me to Auschwitz." "When the train arrived at Auschwitz... the Germans made the selection." "Who would live and who would die." "Ian, my little boy..." "Ian, my little boy, was sent to the "Kinderlogg"... which was the children's camp." "And my little girl, Eva, was sent to crematorium II." "She was exterminated." "Thanks to my perfect German... and my secretarial skills... and the things my father had taught me... so well." "I came to work... for Rudolf Hoess..." "Commandant of Auschwitz." "The day they took me to work for Hoess..." "I was forced to walk pass block 25..." "That is where they took the prisoners that were... selected for extermination." "The people there were made to stand for, sometimes, days." "They were naked and they had no water." "And their hands reached out from the bars... and they cried andpleaded." "But in that night..." "I kept saying to myself..." ""I have saved my son, I have saved my son"." ""Tomorrow I can see him!"" ""And I can tell him good bye"." ""And he will have been saved"." "Oh, my God, I had such happiness that night!" "Such hope!" "But Hoess did not keep his word." "I never did know what happened to my little boy." "So, you know, that's why I didn't want to... to live no more." "till Nathan came and... he made me live for him." "Live for me, Sophie." "Live for me." "Oh, my God!" "What have we done to you?" "Be careful!" "Stingo!" "Nathan, put down the chair!" "This is no time for fun!" "put down the chair!" "put down the chair." "Stingo!" "Oh, telephone." "It's Dr. Landau, Nathan's brother." "Thank you." "Hello, this is Larry." "Nathan's brother." "Yes, Larry!" "Nathan has talked about you." "I know you've been friends." "He has talked about you." "Is that possible for us to arrange a meeting?" "Sure." "Just tell when and where." "My brother thinks the world of you." "I've never met anybody more brilliant than Nathan." "Such breadth of knowledge." "You're right." "He is convinced you're going to be a... major writer, something he once dreamed to be." "please, sit down." "Seems to me, he's got the talent to do anything he chooses." "He's told you and Sophie that he is a research biologist." "At pfizer." "This... biologist business... is my brother's masquerade." "He has no degree of any kind." "AII that is a simple fabrication." "The truth is, he's quite mad." "Christ!" "One of those conditions where... weeks, months, even years go by without any manifestations." "He has a job at pfizer in the company library." "an undemanding sinecure I got for him where he can do a Iot of reading... without bothering anyone and he does a little research... for one the legitimate biologist on the staff." "I'm not sure Nathan would forgive me if he knew that I told you." "He made me swear never to tell Sophie." "She knows nothing." "The cruelest joke is that he was born the perfect child." "He excelled in everything." "Even Nathan's teachers would speculate on what he would achieve." "See, he was the kind of child... everyone is prepared to take the credit for." "When he was 10, we were told that the... child genius was a paranoid schizophrenic" "From then on, the only schools he attended were... expensive funny farms." "What can I do?" "If he could stay off the drugs... he might have a chance." "Drugs?" "What is he on?" "Benzedrine, cocaine." "You didn't know?" "No, I did not." "I want you to spy on him." "But if you could simply keep tabs on him... and report back to me by phone from time to time..." "letting me know how he's getting on." "I'm sorry to have to involve you this way." "I don't think you understand." "I Iove them both." "They're friends of mine." "Good morning, Mr. Stingo." "We were afraid something terrible might have happened to you." "Miss Sophie was all for having me institute a search." "You indeed look ravishing" "Thank you, very much." "So, what you all want to do this evening?" "Come, darling." "This was Nathan's idea to surprise you with a Southern evening." "Your book has wet my appetite to know about the South." "And about the trip, too." "Miss Sophie and I have been discussing the possibility of... taking a tour to your beloved Dixie in October." "And I've been thinking, if it's all right with Miss Sophie..." "Sure." "...that maybe we could make a wedding trip... and have you join us not just as our bestfriend... but as my best man." "I have the honor... to request your hand in marriage." "To have and to hold... from this day forth... till death us do part." "With this ring..." "I be true myself to you." "believe it, it's traditional for the groom to give a gift... to the best man." "I told Nathan that you'd have to put that book away... for a while to make money and that made him very said." "Nathan, I can't possibly accept this." "Stingo, don't reject this." "Don't waste your talent." "I don't know how to thank you." "Future Mrs. Landau... give me the honor of this dance." "It's not really about Nathan." "What do you mean?" "You don't know?" "It's supposed to be a secret." "He confided in me that he and his team... discovered a cure for polio... in my house." "If only my saul could have lived to see the day." "The car is ready, Mrs. Zimmerman." "I'II be down." "What did Nathan say when he saw you?" "I haven't seem him." "He and Sophie left here a couple hours ago." "He said he'd look for you and straighten things out once and for all." "Wait, what?" "I guess you just missed them." "Sophie said he was imagining things trying to soothe him... the way she does when he gets like that." "God knows what was going through his mind now." "I told you to watch out." "Next time you'II listen to me." "I got better things to do." "Do you know where he is now?" "I don't know." "hello." "God damn you to hell forever." "Nathan?" "Are you all right?" "Oh, yes." "I'm all right." "What's wrong with your arm?" "He was breaking my arm." "I got frightened and I ran away." "He has a gun, Stingo." "I think he's going to use it." "I shouldn't have left him there." "We should go find..." "Nathan?" "Stingo." "Now you listen." "Listen to me." "Is he good?" "Nathan!" "Oh, God!" "Nathan!" "My darling, will you forgive me?" "Get off that phone, you whore!" "You know that I Iove you." "I don't want to speak to you again!" "Nathan, we love you very much, all right?" "We'd do nothing to hurt you." "Now you tell us where you are." "God damn you to hell forever for betraying me... behind my back, you whom I trust like the best friend I ever had." "and that shit-eating grin of yours day after day?" "Butter wouldn't melt in your mouth wout it When you gave me your manuscript to read." ""Ah, gee, Nathan." "Thank you so much"." "When not 15 minutes earlier... you'd been in bed with the woman I was going to marry." "Marry!" "Marry!" "I'd burn in hell before I'd marry a two-timing Pollack... who'd spread her legs for a Southern shit-ass betraying me like that." "We're going to come get you." "Where are you?" "Don't come." "Stay where you are." "I'm going to come getyou." "Both of you." "Jesus?" ", Nathan!" "Don't go away." "You know what am I going to do... to you deceitful, unspeakable pigs." "Listen!" "Now I'm going to get you." "Oh, God!" "I called his brother's office." "Larry is in Toronto." "They're going to try to reach him." "I should've stayed there." "Maybe I couId've helped him." "He's never been this bad before." "I think he could've killed us." "I think he could've killed us both." "I don't care that I'II die." "I'm afraid that he'II die without me." "Thank you." "Stingo." "Where are we going?" "well, I want to take you to see the Washington sights." "We'II go by the White House." "We may get a pick Harry Truman" "I mean... where are we going?" "Where are we really going?" "well, I'm going to take you down to that farm... that I told about, in South of Virginia." "I think once we get settled in there we can... drive over to Richmond... get a good phonograph and buy some records." "What do you mean "get settled in there?"" "well..." "I Iove you very much, Sophie." "And I..." "I want to marry you." "I want you to live in that farm with me." "I want to write my books, I want you to help me... raise a family... because I..." "I Iove you very, very much." "Is it too much to hope you might... you might love me too?" "Listen, Stingo, I'm... beyond 30 years now, you know?" "What are you going to do with an old polish lady like me?" "Manage!" "Manage." ""old woman"..." "Don't talk that way." "You..." "You're always going to be... my number one." "well, then yes." "We could go down there." "Sure." "We could live there for a while and then..." "We're not getting married because we could decide that later." "Sophie..." "In that little country place that we'd be living in... we would have to be married." "It's full of Christians down there, you know?" "well..." "I don't know, I mean..." "Getting married soon, I Iove you for a very long time." "I know you're fond of me." "Give this time." "Just give this time." "We'II be fine." "It's not just the age difference, you know?" "...between you and me, Stingo." "You should have another mother for your children." "only you." "It would not be fair to your children to have me as their mother." "Sophie, that would be the luckiest children in the world." "I'm going to die of something." "I'm going to tell you something I never told anybody." "Never, but I need a drink." "So won't you get me thatfirst?" "In the day that we went... to Auschwitz, it was Spring, you know, and... we only arrived there at night." "It was a warm night." "It was a beautiful night." "So... we'II go to that farm tomorrow." "But please, Stingo, don't... talk about marriage... and children." "It's enough that... we'II go down there to thatfarm... to live... for a while." "I was 22 and a virgin... and was clasping in my arms at last... the goddess of my unending fantasies." "My lust was inexhaustible." "Sophie's lust was both a plunge into carnal oblivion... and a flight from memory and grief." "More than that, I now see..." "It was a frantic attempt to beat back death." ""My dearest Stingo..." "You are such a beautiful lover." "I had to leave and... forgive me for not saying goodbye but I must go back to Nathan." "Belive me, you'll find some wonderful woman... to make you happy on that farm." "But when I woke I was feeling so terrible and... in Despair about Nathan." "By that I mean so filled with guilt... and thoughts of death." "It was like ice... flowing into my blood." "So..." "I must be with Nathan again for whatever that means." "I may not see you again, but... do believe me how much knowing you have meant to me." "You are a great lover, Stingo." "Sophie"." "He worked in a pharmaceutical lab." "I think that's how he got a hold on the cyanide." "They found it next to the bed, you know?" "What lab, you know?" "I'm not sure." ""ample make this bed." "Make this bed with awe." "In it..." "I'II wait till judgement break." "excellent and fair." "Be its mattress straight." "Be its pillow round." "Let no sunrise yellow noise... interrupt this ground"." "And so ended my voyage of discovery... in a place as strange as Brooklyn." "I let go the rage and sorrow for Sophie and Nathan... and for the many others who were but a few... ofthe butchered and betrayed and martyred children ofthe Earth." "When I could finally see again..." "I saw the first rays of daylight reflected in the murky river." "This was not judgement day." "Only morning." "Morning: excellent and fair."