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wALTER TEVIS Born in California in 1928, Walter Tevis moved with his family to Lexington, Kentucky , when he was ten. After graduating from Model Lab School in Richmond, Tevis served one term in the U.S. Naval Reserve. He returned to Kentucky and earned an A.B. in English from the University ofKentucky and subsequently taught high-school English for six years, while also teaching part-time at the University of Kentucky. Recognition for some of his fiction, especially The Hustler (1959), prompted him to pursue and complete an M.A. at U.K. and an M.F.A. at the University of Iowa. In 1978, after having taught creative writing for thirteen years at Ohio University, Tevis left teaching and moved to New York City. As he explained later, this tension between teaching and writing resulted in personal problems that he eventually conquered and ultimately led him to full-time writing. This tension, or some variation, is central in Tevis's work: the man or woman alone to fail or prevail-as is the case in The Hustler and Q;teen's Gambit (1983)--or the alien soul in some real or fabricated exile, such as in The Man who Fell to Earth (1963) and many ofthe stories included in Far From Home (1981). Tevis is probably best known for his three novels adapted to the screen, the last ofwhich was The Color ofMoney (1984). Some of his other works include the science-fiction novels Mockingbird (1980) and The Steps ofthe Sun (1983). He died in 1984. "Rent Control" is one of several magical realist stories in Far From Home, which includes the award-winning title story about a janitor who encounters the miracle ofa vibrant whale in an indoor swimming pool in Ariwna. Set in New York City within layers ofenclosures, "Rent Control" pushes to the extreme the themes of isolation and rootlessness so characteristic of the fiction of the 1960s and 70s. The two characters in the story do manage to find happiness, but their private and other-worldly felicity is hidden from the outside world-and it has its price. • "My God," Edith said, "that was the most real experience of my life." She put her arms around him, put her cheek against his naked chest, and pulled him tightly to her. She was crying. He was crying too. "Me too, darling," he said, and held his arms around her. 200 WALTER TEVIS They were in the loft bed ofher studio apartment on the East Side. They had just had orgasms together. Now they were sweaty, relaxed, blissfUl. It had been a perfect day. Their orgasms had been foreshadowed by their therapy. That evening, after supper, they had gone to Harry's group as always on Wednesdays and somehow everything had focused for them. He had at last shouted the heartfelt anger he bore against his incompetent parents; she had screamed her hatred ofher sadistic mother, her gutless father. And their relief had come together there on the floor of a New York psychiatrist's office. After the screaming and pounding of fists, after the real and potent old rage in both ofthem was spent, their smiles at one another had been radiant. They had gone afterward to her apartment, where they had lived together half a year, climbed up the ladder into her bed, and begun to make love slowly, carefully. Then frenetically. They had been picked up bodily by it and carried to a place they had never been before. Now, afterward, theywere settling down in that place, huddled together. They lay silently for a long time. Idly she looked toward the ledge by the mattress where she kept cigarettes, a mason jar with miniature roses, a Japanese ashtray, and an alarm dock. "The clock must have stopped," she said. He mumbled something inarticulate. His eyes were dosed. "It says nine twenty," she said, "and we left Harry's at nine." "Hmmm," he said, without interest. She was silent for a while, musing. Then she said, "Terry? What time does your watch say?" "Time, time," he said. "Watch, watch." He shifted his and looked. "Nine twenty," he said. "Is the second hand moving?" she said. His watch was an Accutron, not given to being wrong or stopping. He looked again. "Nope. Not moving." He let his hand fall on her naked behind, now cool to his touch. Then he said, "That is funny. Both stopping at once." He leaned over her body toward the...

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