Alvy fought the feverish blankets that bound him to his bed. Then he was awake. His throat had hardened, dried. He tried to ask for water. His sister was there....

My father sits at the kitchen table, and armed with a pencil thoughtfully attacks the newspaper crossword puzzle. Methodically, he silences the questions with the desperate and lonely determination of a man who tightly grips tradition because he cannot cope with any more change...

Clara Mae and me got married two weeks ago last Sunday, and we haven't left this house since the first night. This old house was one of the reasons I married her for in the first place. Her daddy willed it to her, and it became my property on the day I joined the family...