King: A Street StoryIn this book you will be led to a place you haven't been, from where few stories come. You will be led by King, a dog--or is he a dog?--to a wasteland beside the highway called Saint Valery. Here, at the end of the twentieth century, among smashed trucks, old boilers, and broken washing machines, live Liberto, Malak, Jack, Corinna, Danny, Anna, Joachim, Saul, Alfonso, and Vico and Vica. Listen to King's voice as he tells a different kind of story: twenty-four hours pass and lives are lived. It is good to have survived another winter, for now it is spring, when the nights, though cold, are no longer harsh enough to kill. The wet season is over, and with it the hopelessness of damp. Today the sun will shine: of what else will the day be made? King is at once a furious homage to the homeless and a lyrical meditation on language and experience. The bitter yet celebratory prose speaks to us all. |
Common terms and phrases
Alfonso Ardeatina arms ball bark Baron Bella Venezia Boeing bullhorn called chariot chestnuts coat colour comes Corinna Crawler Danny Danny's dark deer hunter dog letters door doorway ears earth eelgrass everything eyes face feet fetch fingers fucking gas cylinder Giambattista Gianni girl Gore-Tex ground guard hair hand head hear heard hermit crab Jack jacket Joachim joke King knife lace laughing leave legs Liberto lick live look lorry Madonna Malak Marcello morning mouth Naples never night nose Orangina Pizza Hut polyamide radishes roof Saint Valéry Sallust says Vica shoulders shouts shut sing sitting sleep smell smiling stand stones stop street talking Tampax Tear gas tell there's things told touch traffic can't kill tulips tyre Vica's Vico says Vico's voice waiting walking wall watch whelk whilst window words