But writing about myself doesn’t seem important enough.” “As opposed to?” “War. Dictatorships. World affairs.” “Forget about world affairs. World affairs can take care of themselves.” “They’re not doing a very good job of it.” A woman from Ezra’s building came down the path wearing a Gore 2000 cap and power walking a shih tzu. “Hello,” Ezra said as she passed. “Hello, Chaucer,” he added to the dog. For her part, Alice was starting to consider really rather seriously whether a former choirgirl from Massachusetts might be capable of conjuring the consciousness of a Muslim man, when Ezra turned
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So Alice is framing a soaringly imaginative novel in her mind following the exchange with Ezra, and Ezra returns to the conversation with the famous - and famously hackneyed - Chekhov observation
