Things that Fall from the Sky (Vintage Contemporaries) (28 page)
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Authors: Kevin Brockmeier
BOOK: Things that Fall from the Sky (Vintage Contemporaries)
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Matthew 5:37: “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”
Matthew 5:37: “But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.”
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J. recently showed me the story he himself composed in his thirty-third year. Every culture, he says, tells the tale of a man who finds himself lost in a fog in his home city, where the thickness in the air makes everything look unfamiliar. He takes shelter in a store he has never seen before, a store that is full of wonders, with a beautiful shopkeeper at the desk, and walks home after the fog has cleared. The next day, he returns to the same street to give the shopkeeper his thanks. But try as he might, he cannot locate the store. The neighbors tell him that it burned down years ago, or that it closed its doors when the shopkeeper died, or that it never existed at all. The man spends the rest of his days looking for it. According to J., the fact that this tale unraveling it. They show us new ways to imagine that most cherished of human events, the life of the Word made Flesh. Jesus himself, after all, spoke to us in parables.
J. recently showed me the story he himself composed in his thirty-third year. Every culture, he says, tells the tale of a man who finds himself lost in a fog in his home city, where the thickness in the air makes everything look unfamiliar. He takes shelter in a store he has never seen before, a store that is full of wonders, with a beautiful shopkeeper at the desk, and walks home after the fog has cleared. The next day, he returns to the same street to give the shopkeeper his thanks. But try as he might, he cannot locate the store. The neighbors tell him that it burned down years ago, or that it closed its doors when the shopkeeper died, or that it never existed at all. The man spends the rest of his days looking for it. According to J., the fact that this tale unraveling it. They show us new ways to imagine that most cherished of human events, the life of the Word made Flesh. Jesus himself, after all, spoke to us in parables.
FIRST VINTAGE CONTEMPORARIES EDITION, JULY 2003
Copyright © 2002 by Kevin Brockmeier
Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Contemporaries and colophon
are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Permissions acknowledgments can be found at the end of the book.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Pantheon edition as follows:
Brockmeier, Kevin.
Things that fall from the sky / Kevin Brockmeier
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-0-307-42972-8
1. Psychological fiction, American. 2. Fantasy fiction, American.
I. Title.
PS3602.R63 T48 2002
813’.6—dc21 2001036222
v1.0
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