No, he could not be so ruthlessly self-regardingA...
No, he could not be so ruthlessly self-regardingA cheap stunt, a treacherous stunt, and one that probably wouldn't pay off in long-term relief--yet each time the Swede opened his mouth to speak, he needed desperately to say to this kindly man, "I was the lover of your wife," to seek from Shelly Salzman the magical restitution of equilibrium that Dawn must be hoping she'd find in GenevaBut instead he only told Shelly how against the face-lift he was, only enumerated his reasons against it, and then, to his surprise, listened to Shelly telling him that Dawn had perhaps begun to entertain a potentially promising idea"If she thinks this will help her start over again," Shelly said, "why not give her the opportunity? Why not give this woman every opportunity? There's nothing wrong with it, SeymourThis is life--not a life sentence but lifeNothing immoral about having a faceliftNothing frivolous about a woman wanting oneShe found the idea in Vogue magazine? That shouldn't throw you offShe only found what she was looking forYou don't know how many women come to me who've been through prada bags cheap a terrible trauma and they want to talk about something or other, and what turns out to be on their mind is just this, plastic surgeryAnd without Vogue magazineThe emotional and psychological implications can turn out to be somethingThe relief they get, those that get relief, is not to be minimizedI can't say I know how it happens, I'm not saying it always happens, but I've seen it happen again and again, women who've lost their husbands, who've been seriously illYou don't look like you believe me But the Swede knew what he looked like: like a man with "Sheila" written all over his face"I know," said Shelly, "it seems like a purely physical way of dealing with something profoundly emotional, but for many people it's a wonderful survival strategyAnd Dawn may be one of themI don't think you want to be puritanical about thisIf Dawn feels strongly about a face-lift, and if you were to go along with her, if you were to support her Later that same day Shelly phoned the Swede at the factory--he'd made some inquiries about Dr"We've got people as good as him here, I'm sure, but if you mulberry leather bag want to go to Switzerland and get away and let her recuperate there, why not? This LaPlante is tops
"Shelly, thanks, it's awfully kind of you," said the Swede, disliking himself more than ever in the light of Shelly's generosityand yet this was the same guy who, with his co-conspirator wife, had provided Merry a hiding place not only from the FBI but from her father and motherA fact about as fantastic as a fact could beWhat kind of mask is everyone wearing? I thought these people were on my sideBut the mask is all that's on my side--that's it! For four months I wore the mask myself, with him, with my wife, and I could not stand itI went there to tell him thatI went to tell him that I had betrayed him, and only didn't so as not to compound the betrayal, and never once did he let on how cruelly he'd betrayed me
"My approval or disapproval," Shelly had been saying to Lou Levov, "is beside the point of whether they go to those movies or not
"But you are a physician," the Swede's father insisted, "a respected person, an ethical person, a responsible person--"
"Lou," said his new cartier watches wife, "maybe, dear, you're monopolizing the conversation
"Let me finish, please To the table at large, he asked, "Am I? Am I monopolizing the conversation?"
"Absolutely not," said Marcia, throwing an arm good-naturedly across his back"It's delightful to hear your delusions
"I don't know what that means," he told her
"It means social conditions may have altered in America since you were taking the kids to eat at the Chinks and Al Haberman was cutting gloves in a shirt and a tie
"Really?" Dawn said to her"They've altered? Nobody told us," and, to contain herself, got up and left for the kitchenWaiting there for Dawn's instructions were a couple of local high school girls who helped to do the serving and the cleaning up whenever the Levovs had dinner guests
Marcia was to one side of Lou Levov, Jessie Orcutt to the otherJessie's new glass of Scotch, which she must have managed to pour for herself in the kitchen, he had picked up from her place and moved out of her reach only minutes into the cold cucumber soupWhen she then made a move to leave the table, he would not allow chanel necklace her to get up"Just sit," he told her Each time she so much as shifted in her chair, he laid a hand firmly on hers to remind her she was going nowhere
A dozen candles burned in two tall ceramic candelabra, and to the Swede, who sat flanked by his mother and by Sheila Salz-man, everyone's eyes--deceptively enough, even Marcia's eyes--appeared blessed in that light with spiritual understanding, with kindly lucidity, alive with all the meaning one so craves to find in one's friendsSheila, like Barry, was on hand every year at Labor Day because of what she had come to mean to his folksOn the phone to Florida the Swede almost never got through a conversation without his father's asking, "And how is that lovely Sheila, that lovely woman, how is she doing?"
"She is such a dignified woman," his mother said, "such a refined personIsn't she Jewish, darling? Your father says noHe insists she isn't
Why this disagreement should persist for years he could not understand exactly, but the subject of fair-haired Sheila Salzman's religious origins had proved indispensable to his parents' new omega watches liv