A Clean, Well-Lighted Place is a standard for a style of writing that one need not be and do to be great but it is an excellent one to study for elevating one’s adaptability with language.
I can not remember where I read it, perhaps it is in Death in the Afternoon, a book that I am unsure of finishing but Hemingway did talk a something about the craft in it (Stephen King’s On Writing is a much superior text on that subject and he is totally not Hemingway and people are free to share in the comments which works on writing helped them the most). He said something grandiose about putting it all in there and then stripping it down to the nub. It is an intense form of writing that takes some joy from the process and can be easily mis-figured into obtuse scarcity. One really should consider the reader in the story for the style to work as an art.
-one of the hard things to find in any times can be a clean, well-lighted place–
Chuck had been working there for 10 years and Laurel was taking her savings to open a food truck; together, took on the task of buying and inheriting The Lamplighter Lounge.
The Lamp has been a quiet and cozy neighborhood establishment for decades.
Anne and Shirley ran it for a lifetime. At 2 in the morning on Saturday, one could find a unassuming and well-lighted bar with a decent pool table, great jukebox, strictly enforced rules against swearing, and a proper burger.
Covid and the addition of a large back patio pushed smoking outside and so now it even smells clean. It’s a rock and roll beer bar, smokers do need their space, and the back patio works well for that.
I had stopped by some in the last of my drinking days but have done far more so since because it is nice spot for a hot coffee or cold coke. They expanded the window to the front to bring in daylight, took on the adjacent space and opened that up. That addition had started prior to Covid and has proven a great space for a small show or other.
At the start of our most closed quarantine and people were semi-panicking. They did not stop getting a proper burger out, Chuck delivered them on his motorcycle for awhile. Each would work a long solo shift of doing all the cooking, taking orders, delivering, etc. while trying to find other ways to get food out and keep revenue coming.
Laurel attributed mostly to how well they work together by letting each other do what they are best at and being supportive and also a community that actively support them.
They have true rock souls and sustaining grub so far more resiliant than their kind synchronicity may let on.
Bonus Material
Negro Terror is/was a group from Memphis. The following is a video of them playing some anti-hate music. It is loud and hard and a wall of noise but that is because they could speak most truthfully through their art. Omar, the lead singer and bassist, passed away a few months after this recording. In many ways, the song is the opposite of the Hemingway style for it is only the fat meat on blast and not the barest details.