《Kronk 》作者： - Edmund Cooper【EPUB】

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KRONK Edmund Cooper CORONET BOOKS Hodder Paperbacks Ltd. London Copyright 1970 by Edmund Cooper First published 1970 by Hodder amp Stoughton Ltd as SON OF KRONK Coronet edition 1972 Reprinted 1975 ISBN 0 340 16217 1 All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds. VOLTAIRE CHAPTER ONE Armed with a half-litre bottle of British vodka two plastic cups and the conviction thatsuicide would be an appropriate conclusion to his artistic non-career Gabriel Crome sat on thesteps of the Albert Memorial and felt sad. He had said goodbye to all his favourite landmarks. The Albert Memorial being the most hideousand therefore the most attractive was the last. It was always last for Gabriel was subjected to his suicide kick with about the same degree ofregularity that a healthy child-bearing woman is subjected to ovulation. He recognized thesymptoms - headache tension and a screaming desire to withdraw from the messy cycle ofexistence. One of these days he told himself gloomily the ovum of despair would really befertilized by his wriggling death-wish. And darkness would lie upon the face of the shallow.Meanwhile there was the vodka the ritual the angst and the raven. He did not know whetherthe raven was a permanent squatter in the memorial an incarnation of Prince Albert or thefamiliar spirit of all pseudo-suicides. He knew only that it was always there whenever he wasand that the wisdom of its silence was only equalled by the wisdom of its utterances on thetragic pattern of existence. Recently Gabriel had formed the habit of bringing two plastic cups to the Albert Memorial. Hecould not remember when he had first begun to corrupt the raven but it was now well on the wayto becoming an alcoholic. quot Salud quot said Gabriel. quotA non-death is as unsatisfactory as a non-life do you not think Presently I shall wend - not entirely devoid of hope - to Waterloo Bridge to see if my luckhas changed. Meanwhile bird of ill-omen frowzy fowl let us drink the juice that dulls theedge of dullness.quot He hiccupped then slopped more vodka into the plastic cups. The ravenapproached warily. It had grown accustomed to Gabriels tirades. Sometimes he was wont toindulge in sudden diquieting gestures. But the bird was in no position to choose its drinkingcompanions. Gabriel