I can trace the origin of A Week as Andrea Benstock to two distinct sources. The first inspired my attempting the book, while the second inspired its form. Let me consider the second first. In 1949, the Belgian author Georges Simenon published a novel called-well, who knows what he called it, but the English translation bore the title-Four Days in a Lifetime. I must have read it sometime in the late 1950s because what I recall of the experience is that I was in my parents' house on Starin Avenue at the time. Besides its title, all I remember of the book is its structure. It consisted of four...