At Home with the Glynns
by Eric Kraft, as Peter Leroy

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Chapter 13
Asides on the Compulsion to Tell a Story and Shells as a Concept
 

AN ASIDE on the subject of the compulsion to tell a story.  When, as a small child, I couldn’t get to sleep at night, my mother, after she tired of reading to me or just talking with me in the dark, used to tell me, “Make up a story for yourself.”  Latterly, I find that the child’s solution has become the adult’s problem, and I now have to figure out how to stop making up stories so that I can get to sleep.

ANOTHER ASIDE, on shells as a concept.  I promised myself that I would resist the temptation to elaborate here the parallels between the mansion’s shell and the shell of a clam, but I find that I have to say, at least, “Hey, look: the mansion’s shell, sheltering and protecting the fragile hope that the future would hold an interesting life, would bring more stories, is very like the clam’s shell, sheltering and protecting the clam itself, which has always seemed to me to be a creature very much like hope: soft, vulnerable, chewy, tasty.”


 

Cover of the Original Crown Hardcover Edition; Photo by Madeline Kraft

AT HOME WITH THE GLYNNS | CHAPTER 14 | CONTENTS PAGE


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At Home with the Glynns is published in paperback by Picador, a division of St. Martin’s Press, at $11.00.

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Copyright © 1995 by Eric Kraft

At Home with the Glynns is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, dialogues, settings, and businesses portrayed in it are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published by Crown Publishers, Inc., 201 East 50th Street, New York, New York 10022. Member of the Crown Publishing Group. 

The illustration at the top of the page is an adaptation of an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions. The boy at the controls of the aerocycle doesn’t particularly resemble Peter Leroy—except, perhaps, for the smile.

 

ABOUT THE PERSONAL HISTORY
COMPONENTS OF THE WORK
REVIEWS OF THE ENTIRE WORK
AUTHOR’S STATEMENT

LITTLE FOLLIES
HERB ’N’ LORNA
RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED
WHERE DO YOU STOP?
WHAT A PIECE OF WORK I AM
AT HOME WITH THE GLYNNS
LEAVING SMALL’S HOTEL
INFLATING A DOG
PASSIONATE SPECTATOR
MAKING MY SELF
A TOPICAL GUIDE

CLASSIFIEDS
SWELL IDEAS

COMPLETE SITE CONTENTS
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