![]() "The howlers" is a metaphor for liars, gossips, nosey neighbours and, above all, "the yellow press. ![]() ![]() The only constant for him are his notebooks, where he can fill in the lacunae, the gaps, with his own versions of history, where he "can live by imagination alone."ĭwelling in the imposing shadows of his famous friends forces Harrison to realize that his mother's fear of the howlers went beyond distaste for pesky monkeys. Harrison's scribblings become observations of the world around him where "everything changes, while you stand shivering in the corridor waiting to slip through one world into the next." One moment he is living on his island, the next he is dragged to Mexico City, the next he is sent home to his father in Washington, D.C. One afternoon, as his mother is dressing for a date, she describes the new prospective husband as "richer than God." Harrison teases back with: "Then he must have sunrise in his pockets and mercy in his shoes." She stops in her tracks and looks at him, and gasps, "You made that up, it's a poem." Then hastens to add: "You'd better write this in your scrapbook, the story of what happened to us in Mexico." And she gives him his first line, "In the beginning were the howlers." And this time, he heeds her, because she has seen him for what he is, a lover of words, a poet. ![]()
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