A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY
Zillah gets into big fights with her family over this Hitler/Reagan thing. “They think my problem is a tendency to get overexcited,” she complains. “I think the problem is basically that we have this event–Germany, Hitler, the Holocaust–which we have made into the standard of Absolute Evil. . . . but now that we have this standard people get frantic as soon as anyone tries to use it. Nothing compares, nothing resembles . . . and the standard becomes unusable, and nothing qualifies as evil with a capital E.”
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Then there’s Agnes: an actress, but not so successful–a communist, but not so committed–a normal, decent, wishy-washy person, in other words, who flounders painfully, clinging to her beloved apartment while swastikas multiply. More than anything, A Bright Room Called Day is about Agnes and how she’s condemned by her lack of purpose.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Jerry Haislmaier.
