A Short Time in Luxembourg
A Short Time in Luxembourg depicts the conflicts of the boomer generation's lost loves and blind ambitions. As Anna Haggarty reaches the pinnacle of the academic career, a cold marriage to a plagiarizing professor, and a troubled son chain her to her past. Enter Jules Randall, a rough-edged musician whom she met while traveling in Luxembourg twenty years earlier. With his free spirit, determination and a book of poetry they had once shared, Jules re-enters Anna's life, testing her loyalties and unmasking her own social prejudices. Pursuing the murder of a friend and fellow poet, Jules' suspicions of Anna's husband lead the three of them down a path of self-destruction none could have foreseen during that short time in Luxembourg.
"...During the dinner, Anna found Jules Randall to be a man of many contradictions. He savored a very expensive and rare Cabernet, at the same time gobbling down a big, bloody chunk of prime rib as though he hadn't eaten for a week. He had a sophisticated sense of conversation from politics to culture, from European writers to Indian poets, interspersed with caustic comments, and cynical regard for fellow humans.
"This town is nice," he finally said. "And you look nice, too. You're very pretty, Anna. Does your husband ever tell you that? What's he like? Your husband."
"Jules," Anna said. "I married Robbie. The guy with me in Luxembourg."
Jules paused for what seemed like hours. He then returned to his prime rib, mumbling, "Didn't seem your type, if I recall. You could have brought him, I suppose. Don't remember much about him. Short, right? A bit pompous?"
Anna returned to her own meal. "You promised me some old photographs."
"Ah, the photos!" Jules reached under his sweater, and from a shirt pocket, pulled out a small stack of photographs. He handed one to Anna. "Here, this one is you."
She barely recognized herself. Wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, she was ceremoniously being escorted off a train by a Dutch conductor.
"Why'd you marry him?"
"Who?"
"That Robbie. Why'd you marry him?"
Flustered by the directness of the question, Anna thought to confess that Robbie had recently left her for another woman, which made the issue of marriage moot, but that would lead to more questions, explanations and reality. At that moment, Anna preferred the sweet memories of her youthful trek over the harsh reality of Robinson Penway..." (A Short Time in Luxembourg Gardenia Press, 2004)
"...During the dinner, Anna found Jules Randall to be a man of many contradictions. He savored a very expensive and rare Cabernet, at the same time gobbling down a big, bloody chunk of prime rib as though he hadn't eaten for a week. He had a sophisticated sense of conversation from politics to culture, from European writers to Indian poets, interspersed with caustic comments, and cynical regard for fellow humans.
"This town is nice," he finally said. "And you look nice, too. You're very pretty, Anna. Does your husband ever tell you that? What's he like? Your husband."
"Jules," Anna said. "I married Robbie. The guy with me in Luxembourg."
Jules paused for what seemed like hours. He then returned to his prime rib, mumbling, "Didn't seem your type, if I recall. You could have brought him, I suppose. Don't remember much about him. Short, right? A bit pompous?"
Anna returned to her own meal. "You promised me some old photographs."
"Ah, the photos!" Jules reached under his sweater, and from a shirt pocket, pulled out a small stack of photographs. He handed one to Anna. "Here, this one is you."
She barely recognized herself. Wearing jeans and a tee-shirt, she was ceremoniously being escorted off a train by a Dutch conductor.
"Why'd you marry him?"
"Who?"
"That Robbie. Why'd you marry him?"
Flustered by the directness of the question, Anna thought to confess that Robbie had recently left her for another woman, which made the issue of marriage moot, but that would lead to more questions, explanations and reality. At that moment, Anna preferred the sweet memories of her youthful trek over the harsh reality of Robinson Penway..." (A Short Time in Luxembourg Gardenia Press, 2004)