ZYZZYVA Events
- March 8, 2012
ZYZZYVA at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore
Location: 7 p.m., Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley
Description: Gary Soto, Faith Gardner, and Blossom Plum read from their work in ZYZZYVA's Winter and Fall 2011 issues. Free. For more info, visit http://bit.ly/wCoO2Y
- March 21, 2012
Ellen Ullman and Jaron Lanier in Conversation
Location: 7:30 p.m., Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley
Description: Ullman, author of "The Bug" and "Close to the Machine," discusses her work and her new novel, "By Blood," with Lanier, author of "Your Are Not a Gadget." Free. For more info, go to http://bit.ly/w5fiF4
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Tag Archives: Herbert Gold
Melinda, Doing Her Best
Herbert Gold is the author of such novels as Birth of a Hero (1951), The Man Who Was Not With It (1956), and Fathers (1967), as well as of the nonfiction works Haiti: Best Nightmare on Earth (2001) and the memoir Still Alive! A Temporary Condition (2008).
“Melinda, Doing Her Best,” which appears in ZYZZYVA’s Winter 2011 issue, is a story set sometime in ’90s San Francisco, back when Moose’s was open in North Beach and when dot-com money was pouring into the city. That the title character is a computer programmer on the outs, then, is particularly striking. It’s tempting to read Melinda as a harbinger of the high tech good times gone sour. But the story is primarily a troubling depiction of a woman everybody wants something from, a person truly alone.
