Benjamin

“As far as I can tell, every family produces its solitary misfit, its psychotic mirror image of all the ghosts summoned out of the small or large hells of childhood, the spiller of the apple cart, the jack of spades, the black-hearted knight, the shit stirrer, the sibling with the uncontrollable tongue, the father brutal by habit, the uncle who tried to feel up his nieces, the aunt too neurotic ever to leave home.”
― Pat Conroy, The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son

“But your wife is dead,” said Reiter. “I had a son and a daughter,” Reiter heard him whisper, “but they died too. My son in the battle of Kursk and my daughter during a bombing raid on Hamburg.” “Don’t you have any other relatives?” asked Reiter. “Two little grandchildren, twins, a girl and a boy, but they died in the same raid.” “Good God,” said Reiter. “My son-in-law died too, not in the raid, but days later, from sorrow at the death of his wife and children.” “That’s terrible,” said Reiter. “He killed himself by taking rat poison,” whispered Zeller in the dark. “He suffered agonies for three days before he died.”
― Roberto Bolaño, 2666

“American citizens have the right to travel wherever they like – provided, of course, they have the money for transport and accommodation. They are free from ever having to obey the arbitrary orders of superiors – unless, of course, they have to get a job. In this sense, it is almost possible to say the Wendat had play chiefs11 and real freedoms, while most of us today have to make do with real chiefs and”
― David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

“The crimes of a father or the carelessness of a mother can defile the taste of oyster dressing and giblet gravy on the brightest Thanksgiving Day. Birthday parties are an abomination. I hated them even when I was a child, especially mine. Long ago, I decided I liked funerals far more than I did weddings. The pretense of being festive at these events is both crushing and debilitating to me. Feigned happiness and forced bonhomie take a toll on my spirit that deflates me for a week.”
― Pat Conroy, The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son