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Rochelle Ratner __________________________________________________________
Give the gift of sight, reads the Lions' campaign every Christmas. All they ask for are your used eyeglasses. Except he doesn't wear glasses. Nothing he can do. He's lost his job, his wife, his car, his house, and moved back in with his mother. Over the holidays, at least, he has a job playing Santa. Kids sit on his lap and list the luxurious toys they want for Christmas. He never sees his own kids, who had those same toys, and more. What he really wants is the gift of hindsight. Insight. Looking through these two dull brown eyes has been all but useless.
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Rochelle Ratner's books include two novels: Bobby's Girl (Coffee House Press, 1986) and The Lion's Share
(Coffee House Press, 1991) and sixteen poetry books, most recently Balancing Acts (Marsh Hawk Press, 2006)
and Beggars at the Wall (Ikon, 2006). An anthology she edited, Bearing Life: Women's Writings on Childlessness,
was published in January 2000 by The Feminist Press. A former Executive Editor for American Book Review,
she reviews regularly for Library Journal and was on the board of the National Book Critics Circle from 1994-2000. __________________________________________________________
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