IDA

If Ida goes on, does she go on even when she does go on any more. No and yes." ... Now I should say yes and no. Ida does go on but I don't — for what is Ida but Gertrude Stein's "first new novel in eleven years" which is largely when a novel is not a novel and not novel and not new. It is perhaps about Ida, for one can only approach Gertrude Stein with a certain querulous questioning. Ida who was born Ida and when she was born wanted a twin who would be Ida — Ida, and who invented her twin, Winnie (alter ago or schizophrenia You've got me there) and who then dropped her twin. Anyway, of how Ida wanders from state to state in the Union, no mean rolling stone is she, and of how she gathers husbands by way of moss, Arthur and Frederick and and Andrew and many others — but there is always Andrew. And in between she rests — for she can never rest enough — and dreams — for she can never dream enough — but there is always Ida and Andrew. "And not enough Ida and not enough Andrew." You're wrong, Miss Stein, enough.