Homage for Isaac Babel, Notes for a Case History Summary

"Homage for Isaac Babel" is the story of the author taking a young girl named Catherine to visit a young boy named Phillip where he is attending school. The youngsters spend an afternoon together and the three see a movie that makes Catherine cry. She later writes a thank-you note for the trip, adding that she'd learned from the movie that capital punishment is wrong and that the simplistic writing of the writer Isaac Babel is what makes his writing so strong, so that she's now trying to emulate him.

In "Notes for a Case History", Maureen Watson is born at 93 Nelson's Way, just down the street from Shirley Banner, the girl who would become Maureen's best friend. Maureen is pretty, more so than Shirley. Both girls...