In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4 Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence by T. C. Mills New Year’s Eve in Central Park: the flat lake an apricot before Lucky Cheng’s where our transvestite waitress brings a crown of balloons pinched and twisted like circus dogs. How quiet we get when they dance, these new women laying their hands down their flat thighs and rose feathers trailing from silver heels. Real, real: the age of innocence begins in an opera box and ends with a dark-haired woman’s apartment window. Or the age of innocence begins with my cousin holding a green razor between her legs in my bedroom after not eating the Easter cake we made with egg whites and almonds, my hair wrapped in a fist at my neck. Or the age of innocence begins with rehearsing Wagner, violins lost in Tristan und Isolde, the conductor’s hands pulling the shirt off no one in front of him. ...

Share