caffeinated reader

“Certainly, together Sunny and Mala had bequeathed Ulla a complete lexicon of arguments against Indians, male and female. As if each gender of a certain class, the Westernized class, hoped to make it in America by waging mutual war. It was because of Indian men that Indian women were forced to run. It was because of Indian women that Indian men would do anything to get away.”
― Kiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

“If you remained solitary all your life and were not well-off—again she recalled Mina Foi—you were considered an imbecile.”
― Kiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

“Very few things indeed were really impossible. Had I forgotten Alice’s words so quickly? Billy believed in these words. He wanted me to believe in them, too. I had to try. I had to do everything I could to save Prospero Books.”
― Amy Meyerson, The Bookshop Of Yesterdays

“They watched a documentary about Edvard Munch, who appeared to have every misfortune, which cheered them. Brilliant art and deep life most certainly derive from unhappiness, no matter that psychologists tell you the opposite can be equally true, that mental stability and contentment can create valuable art just as successfully.”
― Kiran Desai, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny