Angelica Lost and Found

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Angelica Lost and Found Page 15

by Russell Hoban


  ‘Well,’ says Gerstheimer, ‘what do you think?’

  ‘It looks different,’ says Muñoz.

  ‘How?’ says Gerstheimer.

  Muñoz begins to hum ‘Volare’.

  ‘What’s that tune you’re humming?’ says Gerstheimer.

  ‘Was I humming?’ says Muñoz. ‘I wasn’t aware of it. Maybe the colours seem deeper and more vibrant.’

  ‘I wonder if we should send it to New York to be examined by the Kress Foundation conservation labs at NYU,’ says Gerstheimer.

  ‘No need,’ says Muñoz with his nose very close to the painting. ‘I can smell if a painting’s been tampered with and I haven’t been wrong yet. Nothing’s been done to this one but to me the colour does seem different. Maybe it’s my eyes.’

  ‘We’re all tired from this Chicano show,’ says Gerstheimer. ‘Maybe tomorrow it’ll look the same as always.’

  The two men depart while Michelle Villa continues to contemplate the painting.

  ‘That still looks like a smile to me,’ she says.

  Acknowledgements

  ‘Why San Francisco?’ you may ask. Well, when it turned out that Marco Renzetti was going there, Volatore had perforce to go along. I have never been to that city, so I had to rely on the goodwill of friends, the kindness of strangers, and Google. Along the way, people in two places allowed me, with gallantry well beyond the call of duty, to put fictionnal words in their real mouths. At the El Paso Museum of Art, curator Christian Gerstheimer, registrar Michelle Villa and preparator Nick Muñoz graced my last chapter with their presence. Michelle also gave me visual notes on El Paso, as did my son, Brom Hoban. At KDFC in San Francisco Bill Leuth asked Hoyt Smith on my behalf to allow similar fictionalisation, which he graciously agreed to.

  I turned up suddenly in various San Francisco telephones and was unfailingly received with courtesy and co-operation. Becky Swanson, Wine Director at Delfina, told me not only about food and drink but also what music was being played in the restaurant. Annie Glyer at Noe Valley Pet Co. told me what Angelica would need for Irene Cat. Bill Hughes at Schoonmaker Marina told me about wind and tide in San Francisco Bay. Robert Tachetto at the Giant Camera gave me details of that obscura establishment.

  Eli Bishop in San Francisco put in a lot of time and mileage to provide me with on-the-spot observation wherever needed. Endlessly patient and reliably accurate, he was my private eyes.

  My wife Gundula helped me with fashion notes and all kinds of information I couldn’t get for myself.

  Liz Calder read my first draft and her advice helped me to get the manuscript into better shape.

  Bill Swainson patiently put up with my various inserts and revisions after the manuscript was delivered as final.

  Phoebe Hoban gave me useful suggestions for amplifying the text in several places.

  Dominic Power read successive drafts and cheered me on at our monthly lunches at Il Fornello.

  I work without an outline or overall plan, flying by the seat of my pants. Sometimes the pants wear thin and my inertial guidance system loses its way. Jake Wilson, reading my pages as I worked, kept me more than once from walking over a cliff.

  Barbara Reynolds’s wonderful rendering of Orlando Furioso into English in the Penguin Classics editon was, in its humour and joie de vivre, a constant inspiration.

  RH

  12 May 2010

  A Note on the Author

  Russell Hoban is the author of many extraordinary novels including Turtle Diary, Riddley Walker, Amaryllis Night and Day, The Bat Tattoo, Her Name Was Lola, Come Dance with Me and, most recently, My Tango with Barbara Strozzi. He has also written some classic books for children including The Mouse and His Child and the Frances books. He lives in London.

  By the Same Author

  NOVELS

  The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz

  Kleinzeit

  Turtle Diary

  Riddley Walker

  Pilgermann

  The Medusa Frequency

  Fremder

  Mr Rinyo-Clacton’s Offer

  Angelica’s Grotto

  Amaryllis Night and Day

  The Bat Tattoo

  Her Name Was Lola

  Come Dance With Me

  Linger Awhile

  My Tango with Barbara Strozzi

  POETRY

  The Pedalling Man

  The Last of the Wallendas and Other Poems

  COLLECTIONS

  The Moment Under the Moment

  FOR CHILDREN

  The Mouse and His Child

  The Frances Books

  The Trokeville Way

  First published in Great Britain 2010

  Copyright © 2010 by Russell Hoban

  This electronic edition published 2010 by

  Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  The right of Russell Hoban to be identified as the author

  of this work has been asserted by him in accordance

  with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or

  otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form,

  or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical,

  mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without

  the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does

  any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to

  criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  Extract from ‘The Man with the Blue Guitar’ by Wallace Stevens taken

  from Selected Poems, reproduced by kind permission of

  Faber and Faber Ltd

  Orlando Furioso (The Frenzy of Orlando), A Romantic Epic: Part One

  by Ludovico Ariosto, translated with an introduction by Barbara Reynolds

  (Penguin Classics, 1975). Introduction, translation and notes copyright

  © Barbara Reynolds, 1975. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd

  Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 4088 1756 8

  www.bloomsbury.com

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