All I Wanted Was Company by John Hopkins(March
18-19, 2005)
Norman’s searches for company and peace of mind in this short novel. He leaves America for a trip to Tangier, Morocco with his older girlfriend Alice. They settle in, buying a house. He is plagued by asthma, and fails to notice that Alice is ill as well. She leaves Morocco and returns to New York City, while Norman recovers and waits for her return. Norman hears her illness is severe, and travels to America too late to see her. Feeling lost, he returns to his home in Tangier. He befriends Harry, an Englishman, and then finds love again with Miss Toledano, another older women from Morocco. When she leaves him, and Harry dies, he decides to leave for the desert.
Though the plot is sparse, John Hopkins’s storytelling makes you feel in some ways as though a friend is talking to you and telling you a story, while showing you pictures. Still, you are left feeling incomplete, without all the explanations of character motivations and the details of why they are the way they are, without really knowing the places, and without feeling the story is complete.
