An Introduction to Winter

“I could picture my mother ravaged by illness, I could unleash the overactive imagination I’d always had; but even as a skeleton, even as a bit of ash clinging to a white sheet, she would still be my mother, recognizably so.”

Book Excerpt: Good Dog

The silence of the night was incredibly deep. The untouched snow sparkled here and there, its gleam echoed by the stars, as if they were close enough to be sharing some ancient, not-quite-forgotten language.

Dinner with Bro

We were as awkward as a couple on a blind date, but we had always been that way. It had only grown worse as we got older, forgetting (if we had ever known) how brotherhood was supposed to work.

Book Excerpt: A Nursing Home

Let the imagination run! So much of love and sex, of life itself, takes place there; without it we’d be mere creatures, the dogs and cats and squirrels of the planet.

Book Excerpt: Up Close and Personal

This scene takes place on the morning after Ralph has joined me in Maine. We’re staying in the funny little carriage house at the bed-and-breakfast in Portland. This will be a banner day for Ralph, for he’s going to meet…my family. “Did you sleep okay?” I asked. “Sure,” he murmured, and then, “why don’t you [...]

Book Excerpt: Life on Earth

I don’t know why, but I have been thinking about the following passage. It’s from the latter part of ‘Winter,’ when I visit my mother’s house in Scarborough just a couple of days after she has died. It has been ten years since I’ve last seen the place. My partner Ralph is with me on [...]