Chapter 87

When Stone’s first came to America, he hungered to understand everything about America, to wear a new, knowing skin right away: to support a team at the NBA, understand what a ‘fuck you’ was and what gender equality meant.

Coming from a cold hard world in Europe, his wife suggested he read American books, novels and histories and biographies so he could have a better understanding of the new life he was accepting and find a way to live it better.

Stone’s listened to his wife’s wise words and tried his best to stand by the library shelf for the first two weeks of his stay in America, skimming through chapters of books that had an effect on him, bracing with boredom, but slowly understanding the need for his self-sacrifice.

He spent his free hours in the library after the first two weeks, less passionately as he had done in the first two weeks, looking at the spacious room that was so wondrously well lit; the sweep of computers, the large, clean, airy reading spaces,