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3 ness that preceded the divorce, such as B's return from parties in which he was lionized, drunk, stinking of rum, & trying sadistically to force sex on me. I merely said that his affectations - in mid-forties adopting teen-ager's slang, changing a title like The Flute Player" to the flippant "Nature Boy" - because he played in the nude & that I couldn't tolerate it. Mrs. Barker quite correctly scolded me for not being sympathetic to "his new get-with-it-ness". (Somewhere I'll have to explain my bias against any & all affectations, no doubt the result of my mother who never should have been a mother in the first place, hypocritically cooing over the crying of new-born babies, & talking baby-talk to our dogs & canines. Anyhow, she goes on to say that divorce is a familiar theme "more so all the time among our acquaintances and many don't wait for middle age. But it is an unusual setting and told in a poignant lyrical manner." Then both are puzzled over the intent of what appears to be a "Slice of Life" story "such as the old New Yorker or Esquire used." And then, "Why not try writing his story, his hurts?" Of