Maps To Anywhere Part I- Bernard Cooper

          The Biggest, Most Beautiful Balcony in the World exert starting on page 21 is one of my favorite exerts in Bernard Cooper’s novel, Maps to Anywhere.  The recollection of the past experiences is shown in vivid detail.  The strange yet now empty game played with his niece is now just a faint memory to him.  He makes the point that during her growing up years she stopped dreaming and believing and started to settle for the stereotypical life of a young girl.  Yet, as the story continues on, the balcony became the place where her highest height was reached. 

           

            “It wasn’t simply the idea of actually dwelling above this dismal view that made the balcony sad.  The thick declining light contributed, and also the shabby curtains drawn behind the sliding glass doors, a leitmotif of misery in this temporal city. “

            Picturing someone standing on a balcony looking down I wouldn’t find the words like that to describe it. Describing the rise of his niece and the fall of the city allows for a vivid image of this  The entire story shows the greatest rise and fall of a great imaginative young girl and a temporal city.