Three novellas by John Fraser with the related theme of friendship:
The two cities in Cities on the Plain, on a Hill are the new Jerusalem on the hill, Sodom and Gomorrah on the plain - destinations for Ahmed and Nico, two ex-pats and best friends. Ahmed, an ex-dancer, interested in the law and justice, becomes an amateur judge and Nico, ex-soldier, poetaster, small-time dealer, comes to reside in a city run by drug-cartels.
What does it mean, to leave something of oneself? The protagonist of Fame is engaged to follow the past life of an ancient, who hopes to achieve a kind of immortality. The trip involves re-running many adventures of the ancient's women, sentimental, tough. He is fixated with goldsmithing, a re-visiting of the Sarmatians, an archaic steppe people. There is a failed robbery in Ukraine, periods of virtual bondage, prison counselling. The search for a life which is one's own leads to an encounter with survivors of catastrophe, and ultimately to a vital encounter...
Seeking a clean start should be easy. But in Cleansing there are mysteries, situations not resolved, friends who lead astray and who you lead astray. Art should be able to present a clean vision, but does not. Street cleaning never starts and never ends. Besides, you witness what you ought not see. Living poor, joining the military - both choices imply different kinds of cleanliness, but ultimately, the prospect seems that of wild horses, tattoed on human skin.
