Arnon Grunberg

Oil

Shortened pencil

Shortly before my departure to Europe, I left the book I was reading in my favorite restaurant in Manhattan.
As the manager had promised me he kept the book at his office until my return to New York. The shortened pencil was exactly between the same pages where I had left it.
Today I decided to finally finish the book. (Anthony Loyd’s “My War Gone By, I Miss It So”)
In the afternoon sun I came across this sentence: “But we oiled our mutual disrespect with money, and although never satisfactory, it was a relationship of convenience that worked.” I have to admit it, I love to oil mutual disrespect with money.
And is there any successful relationship that is not a relationship of convenience?