Rick Levin reads from novel ‘Off Route’ at Tsunami Books
1 min read
Presenter: Rick Levin read from his novel “Off Route” at Tsunami Books. Independent videographer Todd Boyle was there.
Rick Levin (Off Route, author): “Hello, bus driver. How are you?”
I’m guessing she was maybe 15, maybe 16. I picked her up regularly on one of the University routes where student bungalows mix with low-income housing across from the school’s resplendent football stadium, which stands like a fascist fortress against the general failure slowly swallowing everything in its midst.
“Well, hello,” I said in my best professional bus driver voice. “How are you?”
She just stood back from the driver’s compartment, her hand on the handrail. “I’m great,” she said.
In her other hand she held a tattered shoebox. “I found a hurt bird outside the window,” she said, raising the box up, “but my grandmother won’t let me keep it in the apartment. I’m going to see if I can find somebody to take care of it. Do you know of anybody that can take care of it?”
I shook my head. “I’m sorry, I don’t,” I said. …
Presenter: That’s Rick Levin reading from his novel “Off Route,” available at Tsunami Books. Field recordings by independent videographer Todd Boyle. You can watch the entire session at Todd’s YouTube channel.
