A few weeks before the freshman semester at the School of Visual Arts in New York, I found a bachelor apartment (I loved the suave and manly sound of it) on East 12th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. The basement windows were level with the sidewalk, the legs of pedestrians blurring past. If I pul…
My Avant-Garde Education
Bernard Cooper
‘My response to art was quick, metabolic and revelatory, while my response to sex was a muddle of delayed reactions and missed libidinal signals.’
40 years of Granta

The Silkworms
Nothing to see here!

Peace Shall Destroy Many
What made him do what he did? Could it have all been for an ice cream bar, really? Will any of us ever know?

Blue Sky Days
What made him do what he did? Could it have all been for an ice cream bar, really? Will any of us ever know?

Vladimir in Love
What made him do what he did? Could it have all been for an ice cream bar, really? Will any of us ever know?

The Transition
What made him do what he did? Could it have all been for an ice cream bar, really? Will any of us ever know? What made him do what he did? Could it have all been for an ice cream bar, really? Will any of us ever know?
Bernard Cooper
Bernard Cooper's most recent book is The Bill from My Father. He is the recipient of the PEN/Hemingway Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. His work has appeared in five volumes of The Best American Essays series.
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