I would like to visit the factory that makes train horns, and ask them how they are able to arrive at that chord of eternal mournfulness. Is it deliberately sad? Are the horns saying, Be careful, stay away from this train or it will run you over and then people will grieve, and their grief will be as the inconsolable wail of this horn through the night? The out-of-tuneness of the triad is part of its beauty.

He is hard at work on his autobiography 'The Fermata. All of the Updike quotations used are presented as coming from memory alone and many are inaccurate with correct versions and Baker's (later) commentary on the inaccuracy given in brackets. ' It proves in the telling to be a very provocative funny and altogether morally confused piece of work.

Nicholson Baker (born January 7 1957) is a contemporary American writer of fiction and non-fiction. His fiction generally de-emphasizes narrative in favor of careful description and characterization.