On Beauty Read Online Free PDF

to his own home, the coloured man must take responsibility.” The coloured man! And he still says coloured! Every time it was one step forward, and Monty was taking us all twosteps back again. The man is sad. I pity him, actually. He’s stayed in England too long. It’s done strange things to him.’
    Howard was quiet on the other end of the phone. He was checking his computer bag for his passport. He felt exhausted at the prospect of the journey and of the battle that awaited him at the other end.
    â€˜And his work gets worse every year. In my opinion, the Rembrandt book was very vulgar indeed,’ added Erskine kindly.
    Howard felt the baseness of pushing Erskine into unfair positions such as this. Monty was a shit, sure, but he wasn’t a fool. Monty’s Rembrandt book was, in Howard’s opinion, retrogressive, perverse, infuriatingly essentialist, but it was neither vulgar nor stupid. It was good. Detailed and thorough. It also had the great advantage of being bound between hard covers and distributed throughout the English-speaking world, whereas Howard’s book on the same topic remained unfinished and strewn across the floor before his printer on pages that seemed to him sometimes to have been spewed from the machine in disgust.
    â€˜Howard?’
    â€˜Yes – here. Got to go, actually. Got a cab booked.’
    â€˜You take care, my friend. Jerome is just . . . well, by the time you get there I’m sure it will have proved to be a storm in a teacup.’
    Six steps from the ground floor Howard was surprised by Levi. Once again, this head-stocking business. Looking up at him from beneath it, that striking, leonine face with its manly chin, upon which hair had been growing for two years and yet had not confidently established itself. He was topless to the waist and barefoot. His slender chest smelt of cocoa butter and had been recently shaved. Howard stretched his arms out, blocking the way.
    â€˜What’s the deal?’ asked his son.
    â€˜Nothing. Leaving.’
    â€˜Who you on the phone to?’
    â€˜Erskine.’
    â€˜You leaving leaving?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Right now ?’
    â€˜What’s the deal with this ?’ asked Howard, flipping the interrogation round and touching Levi’s head. ‘Is it a political thing?’
    Levi rubbed his eyes. He put both arms behind his back, held hands with himself and stretched downwards, expanding his chest hugely. ‘Nothin’, Dad. It’s just what it is ,’ he said gnomically. He bit his thumb.
    â€˜So then . . .’ said Howard, trying to translate, ‘it’s an aesthetic thing. For looks only.’
    â€˜I guess,’ Levi said and shrugged. ‘Yeah. Just what it is, just a thing that I wear. You know. Keeps my head warm, man. Practical and shit.’
    â€˜It does make your skull look rather . . . neat. Smooth. Like a bean.’
    He gave his son a friendly squeeze on the shoulders and pulled him close. ‘Are you going to work today? They let you wear it at the wotsit, the record shop?’
    â€˜Sure, sure . . . It’s not a record shop – I keep telling you – it’s a mega-store. There’s like seven floors . . . You make me laugh, man,’ said Levi quietly, his lips buzzing Howard’s skin through his shirt. Levi pulled back now from his father, patting him down like a bouncer. ‘So you going now or what? What you gonna say to J? Who you flyin’ wid?’
    â€˜I don’t know – not sure. Air miles – someone from work booked it. Look . . . I’m just going to talk to him – have a reasonable conversation like reasonable people.’
    â€˜Boy . . .’ said Levi and clucked his tongue, ‘Kiki wants to kick your ass . . . An’ I’m with her . I think you should just let the whole thing go by, just go by . Jerome