Mona Simpson’s ANYWHERE BUT HERE “Mona Simpson is both a novelist and a poet, and her talents are prodigious.” —Le Anne Schreiber, The New York Times Book Review “Mona Simpson has a remarkable gift for transforming the homely cadences of plain American speech into something like poetry … a stunning debut.” —John Ashbery “A raw, amazing, heart-breaking portrayal of a sort that hasn’t turned up in anything else I’ve read.” —Alice Munro “An amazing novel. Mona Simpson joins those female literary stars—Colette, Willa Cather— whose voices are uniquely recognizable, always their own.” —Gail Lumet Buckley, Vogue “Simpson has already earned a place beside domestic pioneers like Anne Tyler and Alice Munro. She has not only shaken the family tree, she has plucked it from its soil to expose its tangled system of roots.” —Sven Birkerts, Chicago Tribune “Anywhere But Here is a family affair made real, a journey into the tortured heart of the American Dream. Simpsons novel is an evocative portrait of a mother who is the lonely, hapless monster in all of us, mistaking fame for success, bondage for love, and the daughter who rejects her, becomes her, loves her, survives her.” —Jayne Anne Phillips “It has all the bite and poignance of a life unfolding … a moving, extraordinary achievement.” —Gail Caldwell, Boston Globe “There have been many novels about mothers and daughters … but Simpson has found a very special, achingly real, yet often funny way of portraying such a relationship that speaks directly to our times…. We are in the presence of a major new literary talent.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer “A brilliant novel… Anywhere But Here is a book about two women, but Simpson makes them seem like the world.” —Laurie Stone, Village Voice “The voices in Anywhere But Here have beauty, vitality, and sadness. They tell of arrivals and departures in reminding, confiding tones that Mona Simpson owns entirely. This book is necessary.” —Mary Robison “Crafted with the assurance and virtuosity of a seasoned storyteller.” —Wall Street Journal “A rich, deeply moving novel.” —People “Simpson’s prose is at once effortlessly casual in tone and also an instrument of genuine subtlety…. Her novel takes your breath away.” —Los Angeles Herald Examiner Books by Mona Simpson Anywhere But Here The Lost Father Vintage Contemporaries Edition, January 1992 Copyright © 1986 by Mona Simpson All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published, in hardcover, by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., in 1986. Some stories in this work were originally published in the following publications: North American Review and The Paris Review. “What My Mother Knew” was originally published in Mademoiselle. “Approximations” and “Lonnie Tishman” were originally published in Ploughshares. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Simpson, Mona. Anywhere but here. (Vintage contemporaries) I. Title. PS3569.I5117A8 1988 813′. 54 91-50230 eISBN: 978-0-30776536-9 The author wishes to thank the Corporation of Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, VCCA, the Transatlantic Henfield Foundation, The Beard’s Fund, the Kellogg Foundation, and The Paris Review for their support during the writing of this book. Also, the author would like to thank Allan Gurganus, Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Asahina, Robert Cohen, Lionel Shriver, and George Plimpton for multiple and generous readings. v3.1 For Joanne, our mother, and my brother Steve CONTENTS Cover Other Books by this Author Title Page Copyright Dedication PART ONE: ANN 1 Anywhere 2 Bel Air Hotel 3 The House on Carriage Court PART TWO: LILLIAN 4 The Age of the Year PART THREE: ANN 5 South of Wilshire 6 Las Vegas, Disneyland, Egypt 7 A Shopping Center Somewhere in the Valley 8 A Doctor’s Apartment PART FOUR: CAROL 9 Happiness and Accidents PART FIVE: ANN 10 Home 11 Lime Kiln Road 12 A Backhouse on North Palm Drive 13 A Doctor’s Office PART SIX: CAROL 14 The Stone and the Heart PART SEVEN: ANN 15 A New Car PART EIGHT: CAROL 16 A Lot of People’s Secret PART NINE: ADELE 17 The Course of Miracles There are three wants which can never be satisfied; that of the rich wanting more, that of the sick, wanting something different, and that of the traveler, who says, “anywhere but here.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson