Paperbacks

Truman Capote's snide "That's not writing, it's typing" is often thought to be directed solely to Jack Kerouac. But Capote also said of a class of styleless writers, "They're not writers. They're typists. Sweaty typists blacking up pounds of Bond with formless, eyeless, earless messages."

         You'll have noticed the absence of On the Road. Jack typed onto long rolls of paper. The most memorable for me is Visions of Gerard.

       I was looking for John Hersey's Hiroshima for obvious reasons and another book Black Rain by Masuji Ibusi which was adapted into a film directed by Shohei Imamura (not to be confused with the Ridley Scott movie of the same name) . . .