Seagulls playing tug-o-war with them, kiddies trying to make balloon creatures from them, young adolescent lovers being lividly embarrassed by them.
In fact, despite several gentle and illuminating reminiscences of Saul Bellow as a young man and a loving young father, the book is raw and lividly unclosed, the pain bubbling up every few pages.
In "Tarquin and Lucretia," the naked, lividly fleshy protagonists struggle at the edge of a bed, toppling a sculpture and breaking a necklace that rains pearls.
Lividly sarcastic, it opens with these words: "Unlike modern dance, ballet is the kind of thing you keep thinking will turn into something worth watching.
There is a series of Neolithic Chinese vases that he has dipped in lividly bright commercial paint, so that the modern colours drip down the ancient shapes.
Someone's eyes, or their lips, or their sneakers, or more probably their blood, are lividly painted on to the Weegee-photo-style black and white.
Still hale, hearty and full of stories about the turbocharged years of undreamed-of fame, courtesy of that lividly beautiful, hip-swivelling man channelling Memphis gospel music and turning everything he sang into gold.
It went on to sell 20m copies and make a musical, fashion and just about every other kind of icon out of the impossibly potent, lividly beautiful and fiercely uncompromising Harry.
Someone's eyes, or their lips, or more probably their blood are lividly painted on to the Weegee-photo-style black and white.
