David Kemp story: "The Cleanliness of Maggots"

This is a story featuring my literary avatar, David Kemp.

He is to me what Bill Lee is to William S. Burroughs and what Nick Adams is to Hemingway.

I maintain that Kemp is exactly like me, but infinitely bolder and smarter. 

At any rate, this is a story I wrote in the summer of 2010.

It is based on real stories my father told me about working at the (long-closed) City Number One hospital in South St. Louis. 

The only fictional part of this story, is that I was not with my father when he worked there.

I'm not even sure I was alive when he worked there.

But everything else is fact: the true story of The Exorcist, the fact that my father was, during a brief swath of time, the Jesuit Priest's doctor.

I have, of course, cleaned up some of language for the benefit of public consumption.

If you would like to read the full, unabridged version, please contact me or leave a comment on this post. 

Without further delay, here is the story... 

 

The Cleanliness of Maggots