My 14-Year-Old Self Came in the Mail

Should I Open It, Or Not?

A large brown envelope arrived recently in snail mail from Ashtabula, Ohio. It contained copies of letters I wrote to a young woman named Mary when we were 14. We met in the northeastern Ohio township, and decided to keep in touch when my summer vacation ended.

I found her on Facebook, and we got in touch after four decades. When she realized I’d become a writer, she mentioned my letters in a box in her attic. Would I like copies? What could I have possible said in those letters to a relative stranger 300 miles away? And why would she save them into this millennium?

“They’re about what you’d expect a 14 year old to write about,” she said.

Would I like to meet myself at 14? Not that I could go back and talk some sense into my head, but what I think about those times now and what I was actually saying at the time, well, they’re mountains apart..

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Gird Your Loins for Knockemstiff

KNOCKEMSTIFF by Donald Ray Pollock will arrive in paperback on March 10.

From the first fistfight to the last slammed door, Pollock will keep you guessing what's next, and mostly it's never something you'd expect.

I'd keep an eye out for it if I was you.
-- UT
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Copyright © 2009 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.