If it helps at all, I do happen to like DDSBP very much. Not as much as For Esme, but it does rank highly :) Those were some pretty good observations about DeDaumier being phony then losing phoniness...hadn't thought of it that way before. I kinda always saw it the way Will did (or, rather, will did). As a story about being an artist, like some form of metafiction almost. I think I'll reread it, I want to think through the end again. Jim "The written word is a power of such magnitude that only pedants would try to reduce it to rules. Or the French." --F.K. ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]