ABSTRACT
The first time I walked into José's Bush Street apartment some two years ago, immediately after my virgin experience with the annual Norton memorial service, I thought, “Someone needs to describe this place. It's incredible!” But his apartment is so visually rich that I worried it would require one of those long, boring, descriptive chapters like the ones you have to suffer through in Victorian novels. But then, José was born not too long after the Victorian era, and my first great writing hero was Charles Dickens, and he always had long, boring, descriptive passages, which I liked even if I had to wait two chapters for anything to happen. I always wanted to write one of those upholstered chapters in C. D.'s honor. So here it is. If you don't like long, boring, descriptive passages, I suppose you could skip this one, although you will be missing the depth of character for which José's apartment is a deep and profound metaphor. (Okay, so skip it, but I'm writing it anyway!) Here's to you, Charles Dickens and José Sarria!
