Tres Chicas Books - The Man Who Gave His Wife Away

I often long for something in the presence of other people, even while I'm enjoying their company. I'm longing for the person I am when I'm alone, who unfortunately can't join us. These essays are an attempt to subvert the dilemma. Can their tone of longing, with its implication of distance pass for a variety of love?

She studied the paintings, and from a respectful distance,I studied her-a paintable woman if there ever was one. She disappeared in the galleries, which made perfect sense: I'd dreamed her up, and now she had returned forever to the kingdom of dreams. No, there she was in front of The Annunciation, a dubious look on her face as she regarded the cherubs piled up like wood shavings around Mary, who was just then receiving the word from on high; "Guess what? You're pregnant."

Bio

tom ireland portrait A native New Yorker, Tom Ireland moved to New Mexico in 1971 to live at Lama Foundation. Lama published his first book, Mostly Mules, the account of a trying journey by mule through Rio Arriba. For years he worked as a builder, rancher, and animal trainer, avoiding steady employment until the age of forty. Since 1987 he’s been an editor at the Office of Archaeological Studies, a state agency. The author of four books of nonfiction, he has an MFA in writing from Stanford and received an NEA literary grant and a Jeffrey E. Smith Prize. More information on his work is available at TomIreland.net.