{"product_id":"some-great-thing-isbn-9781616954437","title":"Some Great Thing","description":"“A powerful, poetic, bawdily funny, and tenderly sad novel about class, about love, about drink, about poetics, about land, and about money—a few of the salient things that life and history are made of.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his highly acclaimed debut novel, Colin McAdam depicts the struggle between two men involved in building a city’s future: developer Jerry McGuinty, blue collar, selfmade, a master craftsman, and Simon Struthers, a civil servant from a prominent, wealthy background who shapes land-use policy. Jerry has a blind spot for his alcoholic wife, and Simon moves between women, consumed by a frantic emptiness. When their two stories begin to intertwine, their lives and ambitions are set on a collision course. A richly observed story of family, class, love and the individual contributions we make to the bigness of the world, \u003ci\u003eSome Great Thing\u003c\/i\u003e is a powerful work from one of the most exciting voices of his generation.\u003cu\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eSome Great Thing\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The novel presents many voices, all of them mesmerizing . . . McAdam displays a superb ear for dialogue.\"\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—The Washington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A powerful, poetic, bawdily funny, and tenderly sad novel about class, about love, about drink, about poetics, about land, and about money—a few of the salient things that life and history are made of.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eO, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“This brash, ribald first novel bursts with energy and spirit . . . \u003ci\u003eSome Great Thing\u003c\/i\u003e is a boisterous, uncompromising debut.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eEsquire\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"McAdam's narrative weaves in virtuoso dialogue as well as genuine warmth . . . This is a big and staggeringly confident book.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—The Observer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Compelling . . . Technical prowess and a surprising empathy mark McAdam as a writer to watch.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Publishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"McAdam's debut flexes considerable muscle.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Kirkus Reviews\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Remarkable . . . disarmingly familiar and richly, movingly strange.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"If \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e lingers   long after it is read—and I promise you, it will—it’s because even   as Looee becomes a son for Walt and Judy, he becomes for the rest of  us a  heartbreaking guide to how we treat our closest living relatives.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eBarbara J. King, author of \u003ci\u003eHow Animals Grieve\u003c\/i\u003e writing for the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e does  an  amazing job at telling the stories of chimpanzees in captivity  today and  it also helps people understand why these amazing souls  should be  loved, respected and protected in their natural habitat. We  hope  everyone reads this book and comes to see Chimpanzees as we do.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jo Sullivan, Executive Director of Save the Chimps\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"McAdam's language reaches into that mysterious place where a word ends and a feeling begins. \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e is   a story about love and beauty and our dreams for our children and our   inescapable loneliness. The characters, human and animal, are sad and   honest and true. I could not put this novel down, and only when I   finished it could I breathe again.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Kim Echlin, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Disappeared\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"A   work of exquisite sensitivity and prowess, McAdams' tale is of two   species astride not a divide but a continuum, of our longings and   resiliencies and the fate we share: being stronger than we are evolved.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003eAlex Shakar, author of \u003ci\u003eLuminarium\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Haunting. Heartbreaking . . . It is a tale of empathy and honesty, deftly told and beautifully rendered.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Will Ferguson, Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning author of\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e419\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As brutal as it is compassionate, \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e collapses   the gaps between humans and chimpanzees, bringing us ever closer to  the  recognition that what we do to the chimps in our care has the moral   power to indict us or to set us free, for in so many ways they are us   and we are them.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003eMatt Bell, author of \u003ci\u003eAppleseed\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"McAdam teases and turns around language, giving us a creative and wondrous portrait of nonhuman society from the inside out.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eSlate\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“If the book were simply the story of the Ribkes and Looee, \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e would   still be a remarkable achievement. But the narrative’s radical other   half, which unfolds in loosely alternate chapters and focuses on a group   of chimpanzees in a Florida research institute, invoking their   perspective, lends the novel a rare depth . . . McAdam’s acknowledgements   attest to serious secondary reading—Frans de Waal and Sue   Savage-Rumbaugh are both cited—but his depiction of simian life’s   limitations turns research into rhapsodic lamentation.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A BEAUTIFUL TRUTH] deftly explores the mind of a domesticated ape...a serious, thoughtful piece of work.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The   narrative [of A BEAUTIFUL TRUTH] doesn’t just show humans interacting   with primates. Inventively, McAdam, gives them a narrative voice and   point of view...the effect is jarring. McAdam has had to create a new   language.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Scotsman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Kafka’s sketch [\u003ci\u003eA Report to an Academy\u003c\/i\u003e]  is an  enduring satire on the kinship between humans and primates.  McAdam’s  novel is an earnest, daring and insistent attempt to show the  moral  implications of that kinship.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eToronto Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, Best Book of the Year Selection\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A moving, deeply researched novel.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Tampa Bay Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e manages  to parlay long established and widely disseminated scientific and  anthropological facts into gripping and thought-provoking fiction...  [McAdam] clearly conducted much research for this book.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—The Miami Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Splendid....McAdam  explores the unhappy history of humans adopting chimpanzees as  playthings, curios and family members. Yet in a year when the National  Institutes of Health has begun to formally retire its roster of  medical-research chimps, McAdam's novel also sounds an elegy for the  chimpanzees who spent their lives in laboratories... At its heart, “A  Beautiful Truth” is about voice - who's talking, who's listening, what's  understood and what's not. McAdam makes his novel special by getting  inside many heads, especially the chimps’.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eCleveland Plain Dealer\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"One  might expect the chimp point of view to be distracting, but it speaks  to McAdam's talents that they become the most compelling parts of \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e...  It's a dark lesson in family, parenting, and community — the way we  impose our ideals on others seems to be the beautiful and horrible truth  of human nature.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Grantland\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Colin McAdam's book may  be a novel, but it's still based on intense research. On a surface  level, it tells the stories you've heard about before--- the childless  couple who decides to adopt a baby chimpanzee, the devoted scientist who  communicates with chimps in labs, the process of studying  pharmaceuticals on primates. But what makes \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e unique is its sincerity, its honesty, and its heart.\"  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eGreta Johnsen, WCQS Asheville\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe  portrayal of chimpanzees as individuals with memories isn’t just a  fictional device; the commonality of human and chimpanzee conceived here  is achieved not by eliminating the traits that divide them but by  illuminating the differences that unite them.... With concise language,  this heartbreaking tale of loneliness and remembrance reminds us that  understanding is a process of growth and experience.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journa\u003c\/i\u003el, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e]  is grounded in solid research on chimp  behavior that, along with  McAdam’s distinctive poetic prose, informs  readers while enriching a  deeply moving story.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Booklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Truth\u003c\/i\u003e is extraordinary, rather beautiful, and experimental.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Herald Scotland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A]  sure-handed and mature work, expertly weaving together shifts in voice  and point of view and making use of a poetic language full of direct,  sensual metaphors....There are no platitudes about the power of love and  our need to feel for one another, but rather an understanding of how  sad and damaging a business love frequently is.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Toronto Star\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“McAdam  has a poetic, impressionistic style, and a sense of humour, and the  resulting fantasy is convincing and strangely melancholy.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—Toronto Globe and Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"McAdam  does a surprisingly thorough job of dispelling the idea that Looee and  the other primates in the novel are just lumbering, dumb animals...  Heart-wrenching. \" \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eBustle\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eColin McAdam's novel \u003ci\u003eSome Great Thing\u003c\/i\u003e won the Amazon\/Books in Canada First Novel Award and was nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Rogers Writers' Trust Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in the UK. His second novel, \u003ci\u003eFall\u003c\/i\u003e, was shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and awarded the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize. He has written for \u003ci\u003eHarper's\u003c\/i\u003e and lives in Toronto.\u003cb\u003e1\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKathleen on Wednesday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Jerry McGuinty was my husband for fifteen years.”\u003cbr\u003e        “Oh, yeah?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Twenty.”\u003cbr\u003e       “But Jerry McGuinty’s rich.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’m rich. From a phone call, I’ll be.”\u003cbr\u003e       “But you weren’t really married to Jerry McGuinty.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Watch where you’re cuttin.”\u003cbr\u003e       “How come you’re not rich?”\u003cbr\u003e       “I am rich. Where’s Lisa anyway? It takes a phone call, like I’m, like I’m one of them people, you know, calling. Cut my hair. Where’s Lisa?!”\u003cbr\u003e       “I told ya. She’s sick.”\u003cbr\u003e       “What do ya mean, sick?”\u003cbr\u003e       “The clap.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Ohhh. Lisa?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Yep.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Who are you?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Joanie. I told you. See, it’s here. Look in the mirror there. Joanie.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Joanie.”\u003cbr\u003e       “So your last name’s McGuinty?”\u003cbr\u003e       “It is.”\u003cbr\u003e       “How come it’s Herlihy?”\u003cbr\u003e       “It’s McGuinty.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Says in the book, Herlihy. Mrs. Herlihy, ten o’clock, cut and set.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Don’t you set my hair. I won’t pay if you set me.”\u003cbr\u003e       “All right, Mrs. Herlihy.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Herlihy, eh? Haven’t heard that in a while.”\u003cbr\u003e       “But ya gave that as your name.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Herlihy’s a pretty name, too.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Herlihy is a pretty name.”\u003cbr\u003e       “A Herlihy doesn’t get the clap. Not a Kathleen Herlihy.”\u003cbr\u003e       “No, ma’am, not a Joanie neither.”\u003cbr\u003e       “McGuinty’s a name.”\u003cbr\u003e       “McGuinty’s a name all right.”\u003cbr\u003e       “My name for fifteen years or so. Smoke?”\u003cbr\u003e       “No thank you.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Give ya some cheekbones.”\u003cbr\u003e       “No thank you, ma’am. I got cheekbones.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Where?”\u003cbr\u003e       “I got cheekbones as much as you was married to Jerry McGuinty.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Where’s Lisa fer shit’s sakes? You tell me where Lisa is.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I told you. Lisa’s dead.”\u003cbr\u003e       “What?”\u003cbr\u003e       “She died last week.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Lisa?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Yep. Just after she married Jerry McGuinty.”\u003cbr\u003e       “What?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Lisa’s sick.”\u003cbr\u003e       “You tell her to get better.”\u003cbr\u003e       “You tell me what it was like being married to Jerry McGuinty.”\u003cbr\u003e       “You cut my hair.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’m cuttin your hair.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Arse. Jerry McGuinty was the biggest . . . You mind your own biggest.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Business.”\u003cbr\u003e       “What?”\u003cbr\u003e       “All I know is, I wouldn’t be sittin in that chair if I was married to Jerry McGuinty. I wouldn’t be gettin my hair cut by me, that’s what I know, if I was married to Jerry friggin McGuinty.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I could afford! I could pay for more than this. Who are you?”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’m Joanie.”\u003cbr\u003e       “You’re not Joanie. I was married to Joanie.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Joanie McGuinty?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Jerry. Jerry McGuinty was my husband for twenty years.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd I gotta buy cheese.\u003cbr\u003e       I gotta buy cheese.\u003cbr\u003e       “Cheese?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Aisle three.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Three?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Three.”\u003cbr\u003e       I can count. I can count. Comb your freakin hair, you ugly freakin freak, is all I want, is all I want is cheese. Three cheese.\u003cbr\u003e       “Where’s aisle three?”\u003cbr\u003e       “What?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Aisle three fer shit’s sakes.” What do ya want with cheese? “What do ya want with cheese?”\u003cbr\u003e       “What?”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’m so fuckin thirsty.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Do you need help?”\u003cbr\u003e       “I want some fuckin cheese.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Aisle three, ma’am. That way, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “What?”\u003cbr\u003e       “That way, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       He was sweet, that boy. That way, ma’am, that way. Cheese? Over there, over there by that way, ma’am, ya grubby little freak.\u003cbr\u003e       “Which way?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Pardon?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Where’d he go?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Who, ma’am?”\u003cbr\u003e       “The grocery boy. He’ll bring me a stick of cheese.” That’s it, that’s right. Run away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Drink?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Ya can’t drink here, ma’am. This is a hairdresser’s.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ll just have a drink.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Ya can’t, Mrs. Herlihy. This is a salon. Put that away now.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ll just put it down here.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Put the flask back in your pocket, ma’am. I’m not kidding ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ll just put it down here.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I saw your cheekbones.”\u003cbr\u003e       “You see anyone else drinking?”\u003cbr\u003e       “There’s no one in here.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Right.”\u003cbr\u003e       “There’s no one in here, and you’re trying to trick me.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’m not tricking you, Jerry.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Jerry?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Joanie.”\u003cbr\u003e       “It’s Kathleen.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Your name’s Kathleen. Put the flask away, Kathleen.”\u003cbr\u003e       “No one else is drinkin cause you’re trickin everyone.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Just put the flask away. There. In your pocket. You want me to finish your hair, don’t ya?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Eh?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Mrs. Herlihy, ten o’clock, cut and set.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I won’t have a set today thanks.”\u003cbr\u003e       “So you say.”\u003cbr\u003e       “So says the Lord.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Put the flask away now, Kathleen.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Smoke?”\u003cbr\u003e       “No.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ll just have a smoke to help your cheekbones along.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Thank you, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “You confuse the shit out of me, Lisa.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Do I? I’m Joanie. Would you like a drink, ma’am?”\u003cbr\u003e       “You’re feckin right I would.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Cause this is a saloon.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Right.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Put that away, ma’am. Put your head back there. Have a rest. Have a rest while I set your hair.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Get your feckin hands off me, is all I’m sayin.”\u003cbr\u003e       “And all I’m saying is you should do your shopping elsewhere.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Security!”\u003cbr\u003e       “I am security, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Security!”\u003cbr\u003e       “Come on outside, ma’am. Finish your shopping outside.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Get your hands off me, and I won’t kill you.”\u003cbr\u003e       “You won’t kill me?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Get your hands off me.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Please keep your voice down.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I want some flippin cheese!”\u003cbr\u003e       “You’ll get some outside.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Why?!”\u003cbr\u003e       “What?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Where the fuck is aisle three?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Mrs. Herlihy? Mrs. Herlihy? Wake up, Mrs. Herlihy. Wake up now, Kathleen. Wake up, ya friggin drunk. Mrs. Herlihy?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Yes?”\u003cbr\u003e       “You fell asleep.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I fell asleep.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ve done your hair, Mrs. Herlihy.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Where?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Just on top of your head, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “That’s very kind.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Are you all right?”\u003cbr\u003e       \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKathleen on Thursday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It’s Herlihy.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Good morning, Mrs. Herlihy. Could you hold for one moment?”\u003cbr\u003e       “What?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Hold please.”\u003cbr\u003e       Hold hold hold hold old hold old old.\u003cbr\u003e       “Mrs. Herlihy?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Eh?”\u003cbr\u003e       “What can we do for you today? The usual?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Quick.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Good morning, Mrs. Herlihy.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Robert, is it? Come in come in.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Just on the counter, ma’am?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Eh?”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ll just put it on the counter. I have bad news, Mrs. Herlihy.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Give us a drink.”\u003cbr\u003e       “It’s about the drink, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “What is it?” Itchy, itchy bastard.\u003cbr\u003e       “Our supplier had no Dewar’s. It’s Bell’s today, I’m afraid.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Right.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I thought you hated Bell’s.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Not just now. Hurry.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I was worried.”\u003cbr\u003e       “No ya weren’t.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Pardon?”\u003cbr\u003e       “I suppose you want some.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Thank you, Mrs. Herlihy. Just a quick one. I’ve got four more deliveries this morning.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Dewar’s or Bell’s?”\u003cbr\u003e       “You don’t have Dewar’s today, ma’am. I’ll have Bell’s.”\u003cbr\u003e       “You’ll have Bell’s. I’ll have Bell’s. I’ll have more Bell ’s than you cause you’re driving.”\u003cbr\u003e       “That’s only fair.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Where’d ya put it?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Just on the counter, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ll just . . . I can pour the feckin thing . . . Here we go.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Thank you very much.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Give that back for a second, Robert, is it.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Sure.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ll just have a little sip of yours.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I wish you wouldn’t do that, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “More tomorrow. I’ll give yiz.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Can’t I just have a bit?”\u003cbr\u003e       Fucker. “Here. One finger. One and a half fingers.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Thanks.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Pass that back for a minute. I’ll just drink half a finger. There. You’re driving.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Thanks.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Sit, Robert, is it.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Thank you very much. Thank you. I like this couch.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Fortune.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Yeah?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Flippin right. I remember.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I’ll bet. How are you today, anyways, Mrs. Herlihy?”\u003cbr\u003e       “I want you to leave, Robert.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Sure. I’ll just knock that back.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJust knock it back goodbye son. Off then, ya freakin sponge? I’ll just slip over here and ring the Bell’s and call ya back for more. No? Tomorrow then. Come on back tomorrow.\u003cbr\u003e       “Goodbye.”\u003cbr\u003e       Good morning and goodbye to you Robert, ugly face, freakin mole, strawberry pus on chin.\u003cbr\u003e       Smell of old teeth. So old in my mouth, and look at yourself. Look at above the couch, dirty freakin mirror, lookin at yourself. Get yourself up for another, and for anyone else? Blinds down behind the eyes. Older than you look. Nothing like you look. Get yourself another. Goddamn couch cost a fortune, might as well enjoy life.\u003cbr\u003e       Feet!\u003cbr\u003e       Get a man to lay a carpet just as soon as I finish this here, this drink here cost a fortune. Three fingers at noon, get me through the lunchtime quiet. Half a glass, fat fingers today thank God. There’s a toast to all my friends, I wanna thank you all for comin. Get a man to lay me down, three fingers behind the truck.\u003cbr\u003e       Feet! God damn the knees. Cover your knees ya freakin hag and lie down there on the couch. There ya go. There ya go. Peace and freakin quiet. I’ll just have a quick cigarette, if that’s all right with you, Robert.\u003cbr\u003e       Robert?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“It’s Herlihy.”\u003cbr\u003e       “Hello, Mrs. Herlihy. What can we do for you?”\u003cbr\u003e       “Don’t put me on hold.”\u003cbr\u003e       “No need, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “No need?”\u003cbr\u003e       “No, ma’am.”\u003cbr\u003e       “I didn’t . . . I need my cigarettes. Robert didn’t deliver my goddamn cigarettes.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e2\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJerry\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat I should say is my name is Jerry and I built this house. Four-square, plaster walls, buttressed from toe to tip with an iron goddamn will, my friend, standing proud proud proud. I hammered it into the ground and I pushed it up to the sky, and with the grace of God and the sweat of men I will build a thousand more.\u003cbr\u003e       All these houses you see around you I built, and neither you nor the grown-up child of your grandchild’s grandchild is going to see them crumble.\u003cbr\u003e       I build, my friend, and up yours if you think me common. I challenge you to build something, and I defy the fist of time to touch what I have done. I challenge you to build a matchstick outhouse in the time it takes me to tell an endless tale. See if you have the will; then wipe that smirk off your flabby pink chops and listen.\u003cbr\u003e       It is endless. And I am worn.\u003cbr\u003eMy name is Jerry and my son’s name is Jerry, and that’s because my imagination was always saved for my work. And Jerry, my son my son, is the life hope love and death of me. \u003cbr\u003e       Please tell me if you see him.\u003cbr\u003e       A plague of years ago I put a cigar between my teeth and reckoned myself the greatest man on earth. For there in her hands, careful of the ashes Jer, was the pinkest thing I ever made. Flesh and wrinkles and a boneless chicken in the palm of my hand, screaming in a purple dribbling rage, my boy. My chest, my boy, as swollen as the proud blue sea. \u003cbr\u003e       But where do I begin?\u003cbr\u003e       He had a grip as sharp as needle-nosed pliers. And he grew up smart.","brand":"Soho Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302718591205,"sku":"NP9781616954437","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781616954437.jpg?v=1767736905","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/some-great-thing-isbn-9781616954437","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}