The New Yorker’s fiction issue includes a longish, elegantly written tale of the baby-trade which interweaves themes of new life, death and loss, sex, and the things we Americans do in service of our desires. It seems unlikely that the piece, written in the form of a companion’s memoir of the expedition to Addis to save some tot or other, oh that one will do, from darkest Afric, is intended to prompt identification in the reader with, respectively, the child or the Alzheimer’s afflicted and now-passed hubby. It’s aggravating to learn I can’t share it with you.

I have spent my life between worlds, and imagine that will continue interminably until terminated. Friends, you have no idea of the distance I keep.