Adam Mars-Jones: Slim (1992)
    " ... I think of him as a social worker, but I know heīs not that. Heīs a volunteer attached to the Trust, and heīs got no qualifications, so he canīt be all bad ... " (p. 102)

 
    " ... I used to cry to oprea, Puccini mostly. Donīt laugh. I thought the best soundtrack was tunes, tunes and more tunes. But now I cry mainly to a record I never used to listen to much, and donīt particularly remember buying: Southern Soul Belles, on the Charly label ... " (p. 102)

 
    " ... On Southern Soul Belles you hear the lungs. When Doris Allen sings "A Shell of a Woman", you know that she could just open her mouth and blast any man out of the door ... " (p. 103)

 
    " ... One of the things Iīm supposed to be doing these days is creative visualization, you know, where you imagine your white corpuscles strapping on their armour to repel invaders. ... but if I try to visualize them any more concretely I think of Raquel Welsh, in Fantastic Voyage. Thatīs the film where they shrink a submarine full of doctors and inject it into a dying manīs bloodstream ... Itīs not a very promising therapeutic tool, if every time I imagine my bodyīs defenses I think of their trying to kill Raquel Welsh. I still canīt persuade myself the corpuscles are the good guys ... " (p. 104)

 
    " ... Iīll bet his corpuscles donīt need a pep talk, Crack troops, no doubt about it. Iīll bet he drinks Carling Black Label ... " (p. 104)

 
    " ... Why would anyone crucify his feet in the name of style - assuming that liver-colored Doc Martens are stylish in some way - when comfortable training shoes are readily available almost everywhere? ... " (p. 104)

 
    " ... If the Princess of Wales was coming to pay me a visit, if she was coming to lay her cool hand on my forehead, stifling her natural desire to say Oh Yuk - Iīm with you there, Di - I might even trim my fingernails ... " (p. 104)

 
    " ... Mind you, my Mother thinks that anyone collecting for Slim research in Eastbourne or Leamington would get a few strokes from a rubber-tipped cane, if nothing worse ... " (p. 105)

 
    " ... Fresh lamb suasages, he explains, with mint and parsley, on a bed of green pea purée. An old family recipe, that appeared quite by chance in last weekīs Radio Times ... " (p. 105)

 
    " ... I could settle my mind. I could see whether he skips along the road to the Tube, or whether heīs too drained to do more than shamble ... " (p. 106)

 
    " ... There is something dogged about him that I resent as well as admire, a dull determination to go on and on, as if he was an ambulance-chaser condemned always to follow on foot, watching as the blue lights fade in the distance ... " (p. 107)

 
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