beckoning with a blade

“Beyond the subways, there were the trains. I was leaving Paris at midnight from Gare de l’Est. So long ago I can’t remember, but I believe I had my eye on Basel in Switzerland; I would have been interested in where Nietzsche died. I was tired, not feeling well, but I was intent on getting the most of an unlimited pass good for two months on continental trains. I could save money on lodging by selecting night trains with sleeping compartments. Aboard my car, I was patiently navigating down its narrow corridor. Directed at the man pushing ahead in front me, I heard in French, ‘All I need is the ticket.’ A gentleman facing us beckoned with a blade.”

~~ from “Chinese Sun” by Alex Kudera

I post a photograph in case we need a reminder that memoir & autofiction trend toward fiction.

quite a wingding

“That was quite a wingding, yes. Wingding—the word—was only in my brain because I had Saul Bellow’s Humboldt’s Gift with me for the entire trip. The novel was quite a gas. This was in China, not Paris back-then, or at my dad’s house as a child in West Philly. In France, I’d found a UK edition of Thomas Pynchon’s V, and I’d also read Melville’s Moby Dick. The latter was a Penguin edition I’d brought from home. I knew I had to read if I wanted to write.”

~~ from “Chinese Sun” by Alex Kudera

Maybe because they're different

“A good  while before I ever owned an automobile—perhaps at 23 or 19—my father took me to look at aged Jeeps—now disposed of and on sale at the post office. They were pale and dirty. Four-speed manual transmission. They sold for five hundred bucks and were missing a side door or window. Dad thought that would be a bargain and a car I could drive. It didn’t seem appealing to me at the time, but then decades later during a morning at the barbershop, a woman with the mail appeared. Her vehicle was parked right out front. As she left and drove away, one of the barbers said, ‘I’d like to own one of those one day.’

“‘Why?’ 

“‘I don’t know. Maybe because they’re different.’”

~~ from “Chinese Sun” by Alex Kudera

"Chinese Sun"

My most recent publication, "Chinese Sun," begins on page 139 of Meniscus, Volume 12, Issue 2; the journal is the creation of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP). I'm quite proud of this piece, so I hope you give it a go.