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Relectures d'Estiu 

"The Great Pursuit" 

by Tom Sharpe.

    Roser va nàixer un 27 de juny de 1990. A la tauleta de la clínica descansava a tocar nostre el llibre que havia portat entre mans. Humor desfermat, ironia punyent... Tot i que el temps per llegir o escriure s'emblava que s'havia acabat..... Temporalment.

    " 9

    There was nothing idyllic about the scene that greeted Piper when the ship berthed in New York. Even the fabulous view of the skyline and the statue of Liberty, which Sonia had promised would send him, didn't. A heavy mist hung over the river and the great buildings only emerged from it ......

    "......... At street level it was clear that MacMordie had said a great many other things about Piper, all of them conflicting. A continent of Survivors of Siberia surged round the entrance chanting, "Solzhenitsyn Yes. Piperovsky No". Behind them a band of Arabs for Palestine, acting on the assumption that Piper was an Israeli Minister travelling incognito on an arms-buying mission, battled with Zionists whom MacMordie had alerted to the arrival of Piparfat of the Black September Movement. Farther back a small group of older Jews carried banners denouncing Piepmann but were heavily outnumbered by squads of Irishmen whose information was that O'Piper was a leading member of the IRA.

    "Cops are all Irish", MacMordie explained to Sonia. "Best to have them on our side.............. 

    .........."I haven't shot anyone", he squawked. "I've never been to Poland". But no one heard him. There was a crackle of walkietalkies and an urgent plea for police reinforcements. Outside the Survivors of Siberia had succumbed to the Gay Liberationists who were fighting for their own. A number of middle aged dragsters broke through the police cordon and swooped on Piper.

    "No, I'm nothing of the kind", he yelled as they tried to rescue him from the cops. "I'm simply a normal...." Sonia grabbed a pole which had once held a sign saying "Golden Oldies Love You", and fended off the falsies of one of Piper's captors.

    "Oh no he's not". She shried, he's mine!" and dewigged another. Then flailing about her she drove the Gay Libarationists out of the lobby. Behind her Piper and the cops cowered while MacMOrdie shouted encouragment. In the medley ouside Arabs For Palestine and Zionists For Israel momentarily united and completed the demolition of Gay Liberation before joining battle again. By that time Sonia had dragged Piper into the elevator. MacMordie joined them and pressed the button. For the next twenty minutes they went up and down while the struggle for Piparfart, O'Piper and Peipman raged on outside....... This will hit prime time TV. I would'nt wonder there aren't news flashes going out now"..... (pgs 86/87)

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    "...It is our duty not to enjoy but to apreciate", He intoned, "Not to be entertained but to be edified, not to read that we may escape the responsabilities of life but that, throuh reading, we may more properly understand what it is that we are and do and that born anew in the vicarous experience of others we may extend our awrdeness and our sensibilities and so enriched by how we read we may be better humans beings".

    "Amen", said Mrs Mathervitie fervently (pg 216)

© Tom Sharpe. "The Great Pursuit". Pan Books Ltd., 1977.

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