Irwin Shaw

He was going to be seventeen years old soon and another year after that he could enlist.

caramels from a package

don’t want to put you to any trouble,”

The food was hearty American, steaks, lobster, clams, roast beef, hot biscuits, served by pretty waitresses in modest uniforms.

Fourteen was an all-absorbing age. Tears, death, pity, apple pie, and ice cream mingled without shame.

Rudolph ignored the invitation to melodrama.

Tears as he closed his mother’s bedroom door. What a cheap way to threaten an old lady, he thought. Why didn’t she just die? Gracefully, unwaved, unrinsed, unrouged.

“Christ,” Thomas said, “would you believe there’s so much money in the world and we don’t have any of it.”

“Ships are like women—some come high and some come cheap, but the price you pay has little to do with the satisfaction you get from them.”

Almost every inch of wall space was taken up with photographs of himself, smiling, frowning, squinting, writing on the clip board. Some of the photographs were small, others were immense blowups. All of them were flattering. It’s over, he thought gratefully, it’s all over. She’s decided.