In the Shoebox

(Photo: Phil Degginger, Mira Images)

My favorite of Renata Adler's set pieces comes from her first novel, Speedboat, also reissued by NYRB. She describes a friend's encounter with a tourist bus this way:

At six one morning, Will went out in jeans and frayed sweater to buy a quart of milk. A tourist bus went by. The megaphone was directed at him. "There's one," it said. That was in the 1960's. Ever since, he's wondered. There's one what?

It's an uneasy feeling New Yorkers share. Not so much of being pointed out (at 6 a.m. no less) than of being exhibits in a vast animated diorama.