part 1. Out in the country: The charms of goodness -- The apotheosis of Martin Luther King -- The Oswald Family -- Militant nudes -- The portable Canterbury -- part 2. Lives and local scenery: Ring Lardner -- Robert Frost in his letters -- Sex and the single man -- Domestic manners -- A bunch of Reds -- part 3. After going to the theater: A death at Lincoln Center -- The theater of Grotowski -- Auschwitz in New York -- Timon of Paris -- part 4. Memories: Simone Weil -- Svetlana -- Thomas Mann at 100 -- Wives and mistresses -- Nabokov: master class -- part 5. Readings: Bartleby in Manhattan -- Sue and Arabella -- Sad Brazil -- The sense of the present -- English visitors in America.
