By Gordon Lish, from the fall 2012 issue of Salmagundi. A new edition of Lish’s novel Peru (1986) will be published next month by Dalkey Archive Press.

I do not have to do this, you know. It is not mandated by government, you know. Nothing forces me to say what I will — or shall! — you know. It is, rather, my means of giving back to “the” community, of one’s seeking to perform usefully, even munificently, in the — well — in the modest manner that might, on occasion, by a dues-paying member of mankind, be accomplished.

Like the alliteration I just…