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Michael Malone - Weebly

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names of famous men. Or old Prudence Lattice and<br />

young Susan Packer, who were turning over (with that<br />

quick, unsatisfying unconsciousness with which the<br />

overweight eat) pages of the same sugary romance. No,<br />

Dingleyans were reading because, unlike God and<br />

unlike the periscopes made by Dingley Optical<br />

Instruments, they could not see around corners;<br />

because from any one perspective life is so much less<br />

full than fiction and so much more painful. Safe in<br />

fiction, they were testing their hearts.<br />

Some Dingleyans read not for delight but for<br />

instruction, as Evelyn Troyes now read sheet music for<br />

voice and violin lent her by Cecil Hedgerow. As Ida<br />

Sniffell now sat in bed underlining inspiration in Like<br />

Your Life! while in the kitchen her husband, Coleman,<br />

read, with gloomy satisfaction, the artificial ingredients<br />

on a can of just-spread sandwich spread. For<br />

instruction, Dr. Deeds (escaping the endless gin game<br />

between her grandfather and William Bredforet) read<br />

what little the Argyle Hospital library had to offer on the<br />

collapse of the heart. Ruth had disappointed Dr. Scaper<br />

when she'd told him it would be impossible for her to

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