Aha! The Bernard Malamud novel I blanked on (global warming thread) is _A New Life_. My thanks to Wikipedia. Malamud taught at Oregon State in Corvallis, but I was a decade ahead of myself, there, probably because of narcissism: I was teaching at a state u. in Oregon in the 70s. Same deal, similar craziness. Gee, that really does feel like a long time ago... Carol ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html