Óscar Amalfitano & Oscar Fate

__________, regarding Oscar Fate, you inquired, “Do we each have our own view of the sacred?"

I did very much enjoy Charly Cruz's reminiscence about the big, old movie houses. It was well said. As for the bit about the great DVD, I do think he was simply interested in selling them.

Charly Cruz is a comedian, too.

In not very good English the girl answered that she liked to have fun. Life is short, she said, and then she was quiet, looking back and forth between Fate and Chucho Flores, as if reflecting on what she'd just said.

“Rosita is a little bit of a philosopher, too.” said Charly Cruz.

Still, I do not think that Rosita, philosophical though she was, appreciated just how short life can can be.

Yes, we all do have our own view of the sacred. Perhaps the question posed by the book is whether any of that makes any difference whatsoever.

Which brings me back to my consideration of a better, more fitting dust jacket. Madonna of the Ear would be very good, as I said.

Obviously, I love *Óscar Amalfitano's ruminations on the glass shards. Then when Oscar Fate is in Detroit, the short guy in the bar expresses displeasure with the name of the magazine Oscar Fate works for, Black Dawn, and says, “Why don't the brothers in New York do something with the sunset for once, that's the best time of day, at least in this goddamn neighborhood.”

So that is how I got the idea for a dust jacket picture featuring a sunset behind glass shards on top of a wall.


Black Sunset. The sunset of civilization.

*Somebody please correct my recollection if it is wrong. I do not believe we learn that Amalfitano's first name is Óscar until the end of The Part About Fate. In any event I sure as hell did not notice that until the end of The Part About Fate.