through a full-colour magazine feature on life in the Riviera, he found that these gaudy images appealed to him far more than the accompanying text, and it was to these that he directed his full attention, after reaching the middle of the second paragraph.
12.18
A soft, almost intangible belch escaped from within.
12.24
Imagining the commencement of a new life in a crofter’s cottage, three miles away from the nearest human being.
12.27
Lying on his belly, he bent both legs and raised them into the air, holding on to his feet with both arms outstretched behind. He kept this position for a full two minutes, a rough approximation of the yoga posture Dhanurasana.
12.34
Closing his front door behind him he began to whistle a cheerful tune entirely of his own invention as he commenced an unhurried stroll towards the West End.
12.37
Observations of a shadow thrown from a bench in the shape of a rhomboid.
12.41
Encounter with a film poster blazoned with gigantic red letters, a screaming woman wearing a yellow dress, rushing waters, aeroplanes, tanks, ranks of buildings tumbling into rubble or being consumed by fire.
12.44
He bent down to tie up his left shoelace (in order to match the strength of the knot with that of his right shoe).
12.53
He wondered if it was possible to re-establish naïveté after a certain level of self-consciousness had already been attained, or would this always then be a false naïveté, an impossible attempt at reversing what had been indelibly fixed?
1.17
Officious air of typists eating sandwiches during their lunch hour.
1.22
Screwing up a waxy ball of paper, Maximilian aimed it at the mouth of a rubbish bin and launched it into the air.
1.24
The irritating way in which toothpicks become soft and useless almost immediately upon contact with the teeth.
1.26
Impertinent faces of the riders of horses featured in equestrian statues. The lack of imagination in all public sculpture.
1.32
A cold glass of pineapple juice placed to his lips.
1.41
Concerns about his shaving technique after detecting hairs sprouting from the skin covering his lower jaw.
1.52
Halting momentarily, he considered the commotion at a building site, a frenzy of hammer blows. An enjoyable sense of witnessing minor yet historical changes in one’s environment.
1.58
An old man, with prominent boils and flaring eyes, seen pacing up and down the street and muttering quite audibly to himself about partridges.
2.04
Maximilian turned right off of Tottenham Court Road and onto Oxford Street.
2.06
Aeroplane glimpsed in the sky. Aviation daydream interlude.
2.08
A little girl beaming and holding a green balloon attached to a length of string.
2.15
Italian Gents Hairdressers—a giant comb and pair of scissors, crossed over each other, filling the entire window. Barbers within producing monologues about mortality and horseraces. Swirling red-and-white striped pole jutting out from shop sign.
2.17
Obnoxious displays of the accoutrements required for contemporary existence. Nothing more inspirational or remarkable on offer than that.
2.18
Everywhere the constant streaming of bodies, all neatly buttoned up, choking out each inner fire.
2.23
Shopping expeditions being undertaken for who-knows-what nefarious purposes.
2.27
Overcast skies casting a pallid gloom on all lying underneath them. At least rain would be decisive.
2.34
The possibility of inventing entirely new ways of spending afternoons. To become a seer of the leisure classes.
2.41
Considerations of what the maximum possible human achievement within the space of a five minute interval could be.
2.46
Passing resolve to risk involvement of paprika in tonight’s dinner.
2.48
Maximilian’s gaze fell upon an eighteenth-century paper fan depicting a couple seated in a garden beside an overflowing basket of fruit, a dog attendant at their feet, a gushing river in the foreground.
3.06
The way in which most objects seem improved when placed upon a boat.
3.19
A broken glass bottle seen in the gutter amidst dead leaves, scraps of newspaper.
3.21
Sudden apprehension of the face of a young woman staring at him from a fifth-floor window. Curious eyes, not hostile.
3.29
It struck Maximilian that experts on the subject of seaweed presumably reside somewhere in London. Where do they live? What do the rooms of their houses look like? Are they eaten up with melancholy?
3.45
Pigeons and their definitive place within the hierarchy.
3.48
He turned from Sackville Street onto Piccadilly.
3.51
He recalled that a number of buildings in London had beehives installed on their roofs.
4.03
Struck by the ambition to destroy a car completely, to annihilate its forms until no longer recognisable.
4.09
The
