Scott Nadelson story “A Warm Breath,” free at Ploughshares
From Ploughshares:
Between the long evenings and lazy vacation days, summer is a great time to catch up on reading. If you’re looking for an engrossing piece you can read in a single sitting, you’re in luck! For your summer reading pleasure, we’re making a Ploughshares Solos free on your Kindle (or Kindle app) for the first five days of each month this summer. Last month we offered you a free copy of Robert Cohen’s story “Klopstock, or The Distant Sound,” and now that it’s August we have a new summer reading offering to bring you: “A Warm Breath,” an essay by Scott Nadelson.
In this darkly humorous essay, Nadelson describes his grief after the premature death of a close friend. Every moment of wonder he experiences—from caring for his infant daughter to taking in a neighborhood stray cat—starts to feel like a betrayal. Nadelson looks over his life, thinking about his run-in with a Soho cab driver, a college Halloween party spent with his dead friend, and his favorite Chekhov story, “Grief.” Over the course of the essay, Nadelson tries to reconcile his conflicting emotions, to understand why he is falling apart and what he can do to bring himself back.
Ploughshares is offering free download of Scott Nadelson’s essay, “A Warm Breath,” for the first five days of August. Go to Ploughshares