UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2006 Permanent Record Jonathan Bauch University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Bauch, Jonathan, "Permanent Record" (2006). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2037. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/r6c9-lgmt This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Thesis has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PERMANENT RECORD by Jonathan Bauch Associate in Arts The College of Staten Island 1990 Associate in Applied Science The College of Staten Island 1990 Bachelor of Arts The College of Staten Island 1990 Master of Arts The College of Staten Island 1992 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Creative Writing Department of English College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas August 2006 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 1440231 Copyright 2006 by Bauch, Jonathan All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 1440231 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Jonathan Bauch 2006 All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thesis Approval I INTV The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas April 14 .20 06 The Thesis prepared by Jonathan Bauch___ Entitled Permanent Record is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing______________ Examination Committee Chair Dean of the Graduate College 'nation Gommxtee Member Excmination Comnjii^Member Graduate College Faculty Representative 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Permanent Record by Jonathan Bauch Dr. John H. Irsfeld, Examination Committee Chair Professor of English University of Nevada, Las Vegas Permanent Record is a collection of loosely connected short stories, told primarily in the first person (framed by a prologue and epilogue in other points of view), taking place on Staten Island, New York, during the 1980s. Tracing the character’s development from his bar mitzvah through college, the stories deal primarily with a young man’s attempt to reconcile his feelings of rebellion—against his parents, teachers, tradition, etc.—with his growing awareness of the Judaism instilled in him as a child. As much as the character tries to distance himself from his parents and their religious values, he becomes increasingly aware how much his own beliefs were influenced by being brought up Jewish in the specific milieu of Staten Island. Through his interaction with family and friends—most specifically, girlfriends, both Jews and non-Jews—he gains a greater awareness of his own prejudices and need for reconciliation. m Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.....................................................................................................v PROLOGUE: WE WERE WORRIED ABOUT YOU.........................................................6 SEVENTH GRADE SQUEEZE........................................................................................... 25 CRASHING CHRISTMAS...................................................................................................47 BEHIND THE MUSIC..........................................................................................................64 BROTHERS IN ARMS.........................................................................................................88 THE MYSTERIOUS LATE-NIGHT FIRE AT THE YE OLDE POETRY INN I ll EPILOGUE: TOMORROW................................................................................................130 VITA......................................................................................................................................150 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To Keith Menter and Andrea Gregovich, for their invaluable insights on the early drafts of these stories, and bearing witness to the madness of our program. To Dr. Richard Harp, for introducing me to Irish Literature and the idea of publication, and whose unheeded advice has haunted me like the banshee. To Dr. Ralph Buechler, for agreeing to serve on my committee and for reading my manuscript on such short notice. To Professor Douglas Unger, for helping me find my voice. To Dr. John Irsfeld, one of few people on whose orders I would charge or retreat. Thank you for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself, and for helping me distinguish between windmills and giants, even if I sometimes got it wrong. To Dr. Joseph McCullough, for whom “Distinguished Professor” is an understatement. Thank you for reminding me why I started studying literature in the first place, and for inspiring me to continue. To my wife, Elisa Fraidkin Bauch, for things too many to mention. Thank you for giving me enough rope to get myself lost—and waiting while I found my way back. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PROLOGUE: WE WERE WORRIED ABOUT YOU I went down the stairs in my underwear, socks, and t-shirt, holding the banister for balance. It was cold. My wife liked to keep the heat off when we went to bed. She said it helped her sleep and I was fine with this, though it was still a bitch at two in the morning and I had to get up. I scratched myself before entering the kitchen. My son Jonathan stood at the counter, making a sandwich. “Everything all right?” I said, squinting in the fiorescent light. “Everything’s fine,” he said, running a knife around the mustard jar. Though just a few minutes since I heard the lock click, his leather jacket was draped over the chair, the bread sliced, everything laid out before him. The jacket stunk of smoke. He didn’t look at me, but he had a slight smile on his face. I knew he was stoned again. Who but a stoned seventeen year old stands in his parents’ kitchen at two a m., intently concentrating on a half loaf of Italian bread and Genoa salami like they held the secrets to life’s eternal mysteries? “You have a good time? Where’d you go?” “Just bangin’.” And who but a bunch of stoned teenagers can hang out all night when the temperature is in the mid twenties? I was going to ask who he was with, what they did, but I already Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. knew. He was out, withpeople. They wentplaces and did stuff. My son, the secret agent. All information would be on a need to know basis. As far as he was concerned, I didn’t need to know. “You could’ve called. Your mother was worried.” She had been pissed off, too, took it out on me, asking what I was going to do about him. Like it was my fault he turned out bad. It didn’t help to say I’d take him out back and shoot him. “Go ahead and joke,” she said. “Your son could bedead-~m lying the street?' He was my son whenever he screwed up,our son the few times he did something good. Like his bar mitzvah, when his mother inscribed a paperback copyTanakh, of the the Hebrew bible, “to our son.” Dead in the street was a little melodramatic. Worse than lying dead on a grassy riverbank. In the street, he’d be shoeless, possibly footless— nothing but a bloody stump—with dogs and vultures tearing his flesh. Jewish mothers always think of the worse case scenario. They figure that saying it protects them. It’s safest to think of everything, no matter how morbid, so they’re always prepared. Though I didn’t show it, I also worried. My senses returned. I knew he didn’t feel like talking, but I wanted to hang around, see how he was. He had left in a fit after talking