Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011

Subject: Obit: Suze Rotolo
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 08:49 AM

From the froots forum, Suze Rotolo died on February 24th she was 67.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo
From: Will Fly
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 09:17 AM

67 eh? - not really that old. Whenever she was interviewed about her time with BD, she always seemed very level-headed and open. No sensationalism, as far as I could see, though she - if I remember correctly was very critical of some of the statements about her in a book about BD.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo
From: GUEST,from tokyo
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 09:19 AM

we are received a happy new year message
with her beautiful graphic.

sad news.

kiyohide kunizaki
tokyo folklore center

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 09:57 AM

BBC story:

Bob Dylan's muse Suze Rotolo dies
Bob Dylan Dylan got together with Rotolo in 1961, just before he found fame

Bob Dylan's former girlfriend Suze Rotolo, the inspiration for some of the singer's love songs, has died at 67.

Rotolo also appeared with Dylan on the iconic cover of his 1963 breakthrough LP The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

She inspired such songs as Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, Boots of Spanish Leather and Tomorrow Is a Long Time.

Her friend and Village Voice critic Jim Hoberman wrote that she died in her New York apartment "and the arms of her husband of 40 years, Enzo Bartoccioli".

Dylan met Rotolo, then 17, after a gig in 1961 and the couple stayed together for three years.

Dylan later wrote that meeting her "was like stepping into the tales of 1,001 Arabian nights", adding: "She had a smile that could light up a street full of people... a Rodin sculpture come to life."

Rotolo went on to become an artist and teacher. She also wrote a memoir of life in Greenwich Village in the 1960s, A Freewheelin' Time, which was published in 2008.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo
From: Marcia Stehr
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 10:10 AM

Suze Rotolo was a very dear friend of mine, I will miss her always.
Rest in Peace, dear Suze!

Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan's Girlfriend and the Muse Behind Many of His Greatest Songs, Dead at 67
Rotolo inspired 'Boots of Spanish Leather,' 'Don't Think Twice, It's All Right,' 'Tomorrow Is a Long Time' and many more
Suze Rotolo and Bob Dylan
Michael Ochs Archive/Getty

By Andy Greene
February 27, 2011 3:15 PM ET

Suze Rotolo, Bob Dylan's girlfriend in the early-Sixties, who walked arm-in-arm with the songwriter on the iconic cover of The Freehweelin' Bob Dylan, died February 24th after a long illness. She was 67. Rotolo was the muse behind many of Dylan's early love songs, including "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Boots of Spanish Leather" and "Tomorrow Is a Long Time." She was just 17 when they began dating in 1961, shortly after Dylan arrived in New York City. "I once loved a woman, a child I'm told," he wrote in "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." "I gave her my heart, but she wanted my soul."

Early Bob Dylan Photos

In Bob Dylan's 2004 memoir Chronicles Volume One, he describes meeting Rotolo backstage at a concert. "Right from the start I couldn't take my eyes off her," Dylan wrote. "She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blooded Italian. The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin. Cupid's arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart and the weight of it dragged me overboard."

Bob Dylan: The Rolling Stone Covers

By early 1962, Dylan and Rotolo were living together in a tiny apartment on West 4th Street. Suze came from a staunchly left-wing New York family, and played a huge role in Dylan's political awakening. When they began dating Dylan was largely apolitical and his set consisted mostly of decades-old folk songs. Rotolo took him to CORE (The Congress of Racial Equality) meetings and taught him much about the civil rights movement. "A lot of what I gave him was a look at how the other half lived -- left wing things that he didn't know," Rotolo told writer David Hajdu in his book Positively 4th Street. "He knew about Woody [Guthrie] and Pete Seeger, but I was working for CORE and went on youth marches for civil rights, and all that was new to him."

Rotolo told Dylan about the brutal 1955 murder of Emmett Till, inspiring Dylan to write his early protest classic "The Death of Emmett Till." "I think it's the best thing I've ever written," Dylan said at the time. "How many nights I stayed up and wrote songs and showed them to [Suze] and asked, 'Is this right? Because I knew her mother was associated with unions, and she was into this equality-freedom thing long before I was. I checked the songs out with her. She would like all the songs."

In the summer of 1962 Rotolo took a long trip to Italy, leaving Dylan alone and heartbroken in New York. During this period he penned "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," "Boots of Spanish Leather" and "Tomorrow Is A Long Time" -- all bittersweet love songs about Rotolo. She returned in January of 1963, and weeks later Columbia records send photographer Don Hunstein to shoot the cover of The Freehweelin' Bob Dylan. The young couple walked up and down Jones Street for a few minutes while Hunstein snapped shots. "Bob stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and leaned into me," Rotolo wrote in her 2009 book A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties. "We walked the length of Jones Street facing West Fourth with Bleecker Street at our backs. In some outtakes it's obvious that we were freezing; certainly Bob was, in that thin jacket. But image was all. As for me, I was never asked to sign a release or paid anything. It never dawned on me to ask."

Photos of Dylan, Johnny Cash and Miles Davis by Don Hunstein

Dylan's growing fame put enormous strain on their relationship, and she moved into her sister Carla's apartment in August of 1963. "I could no longer cope with all the pressure, gossip, truth and lies that living with Bob entailed," she wrote in her memoir. "I was unable to find solo ground -- I was on quicksand and very vulnerable." A particularly nasty fight with Suze and her sister Carla was chronicled in Dylan's 1964 song "Ballad in Plain D." "For her parasite sister, I had no respect," Dylan wrote in one of the angriest songs he ever wrote. "Bound by her boredom, her pride had to protect." In a 1985 interview Dylan said releasing the song was wrong. "It wasn't very good," he said. "It was a mistake to record it and I regret it."

By late 1963, Rotolo could no longer ignore the rumors that Joan Baez and Bob Dylan's relationship had become more than professional. They split up for good, though remained friends for a short period afterwards. During Rotolo's trip to Italy in 1962, Rotolo met film editor Enzo Bartoccioli. They married in 1970 and had a son named Luca. She lived in downtown New York her entire life, and worked as a teacher, a painter and a book illustrator.

For years Rotolo refused to discuss Dylan in interviews, but she agreed to be interviewed in Martin Scorsese's 2005 documentary No Direction Home. In 2009 she wrote a memoir entitled A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo
From: Amos
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 10:30 AM

Aw,, dang. An iconic image, her long hair blowing in the winter wind. Sad.



A

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Little Hawk
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 11:06 AM

(Sigh) Another beloved figure of my youth has gone on to whatever lies beyond. Good traveling, Suze, you will not be forgotten.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 11:29 AM

Related thread here. Scroll down about 5 posts and grab a listen to Stilly's link to the Terry Gross interview with Suze.

Suze Rotolo memoirs (re Bob Dylan)

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=114577

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 11:32 AM

Forgot to mention how sorry I am to read this news. I always respected her for not dishing the dirt on Dylan in spite of what must have been tremendous pressure (not to mention financial incentives) to do so.

R.I.P. Suze. Say hi to Phil Ochs for us -

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Amos
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 11:57 AM

Rolling Stone covers her passing.


A

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 04:25 PM

Bye bye Suze! And thank you on behalf of every young guy who wanted to be Bob, walking through the frozen slush of a New York street with a head full of dreams, and the beautiful long brown hair of his girlfriend touching his cheek.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 07:13 PM

NPR's Fresh Air 2008 interview link. Moved over here for convenience.

SRS

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Anglo
Date: 28 Feb 11 - 07:31 PM

Suze seemed to me to be a very balanced, intelligent, artistic person when I met her briefly at the New York Folklore Society conference a couple of years ago, where she was the keynote speaker. As a longtime Dylan fan (I had hitchhiked from Manchester to London over the Easter weekend in the early 60s to get to Dylan's solo Royal Festival Hall concert) I was very glad that I was there, and enjoyed her talk. Not that she gave us any great revelations - but she was definitely her own person at the time, doing her own thing, and from all I heard, and hear, doing it very well. I am sorry for her passing. She was not one who looked close to death.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: catspaw49
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 12:57 AM

Many of us will miss you Suze even though we never really knew you.   There was a generation of us who, as many generations before, felt we had to change the world and it was in dire need of change. Dylan was of course a huge part of those days no matter how he saw it then or now.

And many of us looked at that album cover as Alan stated above and saw you as the perfect woman for the times. Looking back at it now, its easy to see that my longtime girlfriend in college was bright and beautiful with high cheekbones, long auburn hair, and green eyes.............I don't think I thought it through at the time but many years later it was hard not to notice the similarity.   I'm willing to bet that I was not alone......

For many of us you are not gone nor are you 67. We'll remember you at 17 in the New York snow.


Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 03:15 AM

Suze Rotolo, Forever Young.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: alanabit
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 06:14 AM

Obviously she was a graceful woman of some substance, who had a life of her own. Sorry to hear of her passing.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Van
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 08:03 AM

Lengthy obit in today's Guardian.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 11:27 AM

New York Times

guardian.co.uk

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Dave MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 11:50 AM

If Suze hadn't lent Bob her lipstick holder I might never have tried playing slide! Never met her, but she influenced a generation, and'll be sorely missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,steve
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 11:54 AM

"He could be a shit, like anybody else," she said

too bad she didn't dump him earlier...sounds like he was nothing but trouble....self-centered irresponsible poseur avec une guitarre...

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: alanabit
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 03:12 PM

Not a Bob Dylan fan then, eh Steve? As it happens, neither of them was vindictive towards the other when they grew up, so it is odd that you can not forgive Dylan's youthful failings.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,steve
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 03:28 PM

he should've been _nicer_... ;-)

I've been jealous for 50 years...Suze was gorgeous & smart, but Ballad in D was just mean...

at one time, I played every recorded (and unrecorded/unissued) song from the period of the first four Columbia albums...

s.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Maryrrf
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 03:31 PM

I also think Ballad in D was mean - I seem to remember somewhere that even Bob Dylan admitted he'd gone a little too far and probably shouldn't have released it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 01 Mar 11 - 06:13 PM

Well I don't know if it was mean. No one had a clue what it was about at the time. I remember one guy did a floorspot and said it was about Vietnam!

I suppose Birmingham Sunday was written about that time. at least they got us looking at I once loved a lass.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 03:49 AM

Its intent was pretty clearly understood where I was (in The States, where I grew up). I remember knowing at the time that Ballad In Plain D was mean and spiteful. Also hypocritical. "For her parasite sister I had no respect"... oh really? Carla Rotolo was giving him free living space in her home in those days. So who's the parasite? That song always just sounded like one long self-centred whine.

It accomplished one good thing though - it used to MEGA piss my mother off. She could go on for hours about it, thus getting her off my own back.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: alanabit
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 07:30 AM

"Myself for what I did can not be excused
The changes I was going through can not be used
For the lies that I told her and hoped not to lose
The could be dream love of a lifetime."

I can not argue with those who say the song was unfair to the Rotolo family. However, it is clear enough from the above lines that Dylan did not claim to be blameless. The song (with all its faults) works quite well as a dramatic ballad for me. I think it is always dangerous to over identify a song with a person who inspired it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 07:35 AM

Good point, and quite right. However, the "parasite sister" identity was always very clear, so I don't think there's any danger of over-interpreting what was a simple fact.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 07:36 AM

Also... have to admit... I'm typing from memory, and had forgotten the verse you've quoted.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 11:38 AM

Interesting note here.....or not............

We have talked for years about the importance of making a song your own and also how difficult that can be with many of today's singer/songwriters because they are so deeply navel gazing.

Alan just gave an example of and then said how this song works for him. While many are turned off (justly) by the background of this song, Dylan always had an amazing ability to "navel gaze" in such a way that many of his songs are wide open for other interpretation. We ran a long thread discussing "Don't Think Twice" for instance and all the ways we saw it differently.

I remember hearing this song for the first time and thinking it was a wonderful piece about a love gone tragically wrong and lost forever. And before I ever learned what Dylan really was saying for himself, I had experienced something of the sort my own self. So whether you see the cruelness or the tragedy or whatever, this song has the aura of truth and I can ask no more of any song.

Just a thought...........

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: BrooklynJay
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 12:03 PM

I think you've nailed it, Spaw, at least IMO.

A song can be good, even great, but when you feel a personal identification in any way, it takes it to a new level entirely.

With Suze Rotolo's passing, I know that yet another part of my youth has been lost.

Jay

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Maryrrf
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 01:16 PM

Some of the more bitter and personalized verses (like the infamous "parasite sister" line) could have been left out and the song would have been just as effective, if not more so. Perhaps, in retrospect and after some distance, he'd have edited it out.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Mar 11 - 03:09 PM

Another article on her here:

Open Salon

http://open.salon.com/blog/frank_michels/2011/03/02/suze_rotolo_dies--the_60s_keep_fading_away

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 01:52 PM

There are some clumsy verses in that song, and there are some very good verses in it also. Bob Dylan himself has said in recent years that the song wasn't that good (in his opinion) and that he regrets having recorded it, probably largely because he was so spiteful to Suze's mother and sister in the lyrics.

I think it's a very good song in some respects, and it's badly flawed in some respects. Depends what part of it you look at.

The last 2 verses are, however, wonderful, and they finish the song off perfectly:

The wind knocks my window, the pane it is wet
The words to say I'm sorry, I haven't found yet
I think of her often and hope whoever she's met
Will be fully aware of how precious she is

Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me
"How good, how good does it feel to be free?"
And I answer them back most mysteriously
"Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?"


That is damn good songwriting.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 01:58 PM

Oh man, you ain't wrong there! Can't remember how many times I bitterly sang that last verse to myself. Also My weariness amazes me, I'm branded on my feet. The chronicles of my youth.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 01:59 PM

I would hazard that few people here have even thought of Suze Rotolo in decades. I'm sorry she died, but no more so than if any other stranger did. Maybe her sister WAS a parasite. Maybe Dylan was correct. And maybe not. Whether you like Dylan or not, he can still write circles around anyone else. imo

If you want to argue with me about it, please write to Little Hawk because I don't wanna hear it. Thank you.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:02 PM

I think a lot of us thought of Suze when her autobiography came out, or when Terry Gross interviewed her.

Why on earth would anyone want to argue with you??

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:06 PM

I was joking.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:10 PM

That's a relief

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 02:18 PM

Sorry, Bonnie. I get a bit pissed off when people decide--based on someone else's words--that Dylan was some sort of monster. No one would have ever heard of Rotolo had she not appeared with Dylan on his album cover. I sometimes think that those same people think that way about others, and they don't give a rat's ass for facts because they have already made their minds up. Anyway, I'm off this thread. I don't care for gossip--no offense to anyone--even if it WAS written in a book.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: pavane
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 05:01 PM

I always enjoyed the song - I still have the vinyl I bought when it was new.

But I have to comment:

Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me
"How good, how good does it feel to be free?"
And I answer them back most mysteriously
"Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?"

That is damn good songwriting. Yes, partly because it is derived, like much of the whole song, from a very good traditional song (The False Bride)

"My friends in the forest, they ask unto me
How many strawberries grow in the salt sea
And I answer them with a tear in my ee (eye)
How many ships sail in the forest?"

Equally mysterious, too. (Don't get me wrong, I have always liked Dylan - he first triggered my interest in folk music)

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Little Hawk
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 05:16 PM

Yeah, I was well aware that Dylan used the basic structure of that trad song to do "Ballad in Plain D", and with good results as usual. His updating of traditional ballads into contemporary themes usually worked extremely well, and it's something I've learned to do myself from time to time, but I probably wouldn't have thought of if Bob hadn't given me the idea in the first place.

As for Suze Rotolo, I've thought of her frequently throughout every year of my life ever since the late 60s. The mere fact that she's on the cover of "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" and that she went out with Bob for about 3 years in those extraordinary early years of his career have been enough to ensure that I would remember her well.

On the one hand, there are millions of extremely valuable people out there that no one will ever hear of....and that's okay....but there are also those few who will be remembered because of some common cultural connection that brought them to people's attention...and that's okay too. Suze was one of the latter. Either way, it has no real bearing on the value of the person one way or the other. It just IS the way it is, and that's all there is to it.

I accept chaos. ;-D And my feeling is that it accepts me. (and you too)

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Mar 11 - 07:17 PM

I'm glad I took the time to read Suze's autobiography six months ago. I doubt that I would read it the same way now.

It's sad to think that such a creative and principled person had to die so young. Well, I suppose 67, hell, 37, would seem ancient to some people here. But my point is that after reading her book I felt strongly that she still had much more to do.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 04 Mar 11 - 03:46 AM

The fact that Suze was a muse to one of the major songwriters of the 20th century, who loved and was inspired by her, makes her of lasting interest, and it also means she had a direct influence on our culture. How many people throughout history are only remembered because of the artistic works created around them - but we're the richer for getting to know them too, in the limited ways that we can.

In addition to the Dylan connection Suze also lived through the paranoid McCarthy era so she was a witness from "the wrong side" at an early age, as the child of Communists. She was forced to learn a lot - and fast - about living in secrecy and protecting yourself. Definitely fascinating in her own right and I feel a great loss that she's been taken away too soon.

As a dyed-in-the-wool folkie I've always been aware of the traditional background of a lot of his words, but this connects them with the past and lends a sense of timelessness.

I get a bit pissed off when people decide--based on someone else's words--that Dylan was some sort of monster... I sometimes think that those same people think that way about others, and they don't give a rat's ass for facts because they have already made their minds up.

I get a bit pissed off when people decide - based on someone else's words - how those folks think about others and what they do or don't give a rat's ass about.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Steve in Sidmouth
Date: 17 Mar 11 - 07:00 PM

Not sure if this article has been linked already:

obit from Telegraph. Worth reading my my view.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Don Firth
Date: 17 Mar 11 - 07:24 PM

Excellent article!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Mar 11 - 07:47 PM

"I get a bit pissed off when people decide - based on someone else's words - how those folks think about others and what they do or don't give a rat's ass about."

True eloquence. Not to your usual standard, though.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Mar 11 - 09:14 PM

Steve-

Thanks for the link. That pretty much summed up my impression of Suze for years. Then I read her book and learned a whole lot more about her. I would have loved to have met her.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 17 Mar 11 - 09:18 PM

True eloquence. Not to your usual standard, though.

That's cos I was quoting!

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: GUEST,999
Date: 18 Mar 11 - 11:42 AM

LOL

Good one.

Subject: RE: Obit: Suze Rotolo 24 Feb 2011
From: Marcia Stehr
Date: 25 Feb 12 - 10:26 AM

Rest in Peace Suze! You are loved and missed!

Suze Rotolo wrote about Geno Foreman in her book "A Freewheelin' Time"


Suze Rotolo died on Feb. 24, 2011. She wrote beautifully about Geno in her book.

... 1. A Freewheelin' Time: a Memoir of Greenwich Village in the sixties - Page 270

Suze Rotolo - 2008 - 371 pages - Preview

Geno Foreman came from a distinguished family. Though he was the son of Clark Foreman, the director of the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, the group that had given Bob the Tom Paine Award, Geno didn't seem to be from any family. It was as if he just flowed loose in the world with an extraterrestrial energy. He was about six feet tall, with very dark, thick hair and a full beard, and he was missing some front teeth. His dark fiery eyes darted about as fast as his words when he spoke.

........

I don't remember when I saw Geno again-later that day or weeks afterward- but he had no sense of gaffe or an offense because Geno wouldn't intentionally hurt a fly. Geno. Man. Geno was beautiful, brilliant and irrepressible. He was the mad prince in the kingdom of the mad ones. He married and fathered a child and died in a freak accident in England a few years later.

"Codicil"

..."Sadness so overwhelming it takes the breath away. Numbness affects the ability to move the body, and brain fog hampers vision. The slightest thing can bring on a bout of crying. Constricted throat, burning insides, dull aches. Nothing matters but what went wrong or what can go wrong now that something is beginning to feel wrong. There is a wicked, hideous, backbiting enemy in cahoots with instinct to beat the daylights out of white-hot sentiment. No contest. Everything is obliterated."