Reader's Request Week: Fat City (1972)
“Look, we all know this, it’s not revolutionary, but I’ll say it anyway: Sometimes life is a series of workouts that leave you tired. Of small victories that turn out to be the prelude to large setbacks. Of power outages, literal and metaphorical. Of the endless return of personal demons who sometimes seem to be playing around in a sort of revolving door in your head, leaving just long enough for you to feel elated at their departure and positive about your new forward momentum—your new demon-free existence—and then swinging back in, laughing and waving some shopping bags in their hands and announcing themselves as heartier than ever.”
- Elizabeth Cantwell, in her essay on Fat City, which is brilliant all over the place, and especially here.
