“Toothbrush” by Michael Martone
Toothbrush
Indianapolis, 1996
Susan Neville remembers it differently. She remembers John Updike, sitting behind her as she drove the minivan, pointing out that there was a toothbrush on the dashboard. I don’t remember the toothbrush at all. I was sitting shotgun in the minivan with Kurt Vonnegut behind me. In the shadows, I could see Vonnegut even though my head was turned to listen to him talk to Updike. I couldn’t see Updike, in the pale light, and a smear of the melting limestone wedding cake of a building, Jordan Hall, in the window behind him as we drove through the campus to the venue where they would speak, keynotes at the inaugural Spirit & Place Festival. That is what I remember, not the toothbrush but Vonnegut pointing out Jordan Hall and saying something about limestone, Indiana architecture, and his father’s buildings—the telephone exchanges and the drug stores. I remember, too, Susan’s slight smile, lit by the van’s dashboard lights, as she listened, negotiating the narrow street that led over to the sheer floodlit limestone cliffs of Clowes Hall in the near distance.
Fort Wayne-born author Michael Martone will join the Booth 19 Launch Party this Saturday at Tube Factory artspace. He will read from his new memoir Table Talk and Second Thoughts from which “Toothbrush” was taken. Booth is a literary journal published by Butler University, and its staff is comprised of faculty, students and alumni from the Butler University MFA program.
From the Booth Facebook page: “This celebration of Indy's rich literary community will feature tables and live readers from the Heartland Society of Women Writers, the Indiana Writers Center, Etchings Press, and more. In addition, Indy synth-pop musician and singer-songwriter Jennasen will perform a live set with us at the funky and gorgeous Tube Factory Artspace.”
The event is free and open to the public.
When: Saturday, April 6 - Doors open at 6 PM, readings begin at 7PM.
Where: Tube Factory Artspace - 1125 S. Cruft St. Indianapolis
Sponsored by Big Car.
