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"So, this moment of supposed triumph (I’d “found my voice!”) was also sad.

It was as if I’d sent the hunting dog that was my talent out across a meadow to fetch a magnificent pheasant and it had brought back, let’s say, the lower half of a Barbie doll."

They had two ambulances, and Nathan said I was going into one of them, period. They were duty bound to send me to the hospital and get me treated for exposure. I didn’t know what all that entailed. I definitely had been exposed to some shit.

I let myself in through the front door, careful under the dripping daggers of ice. Even through the dimness, it was apparent that the foyer had been cleared of old newspapers and bottles, even swept. The cool shape of a white circular tablecloth on the kitchen table told me that someone had been cleaning. Perhaps the station had sent over a rookie after word got around that my esteemed father had been living in a pig

"As he leaned in she felt the scent of his hair cream wrap itself around her face."

"They smell of stale bread, of stuffy living rooms crammed with dark titanic Breton furnishings."

She scooted into the booth opposite. He didnt look up. What are you havin, he said.
I dont know. I aint looked at the menu.
He spun the menu around and slid it in front of her and turned and looked for the waitress.
What are you? the girl said.
What am I havin?
No. What are you. Are you a character?
He studied her. The only people I know that know what a character is, he said, is other characters.
I might just be a f

"On the ride home I kept expecting Dad to talk to me about this commitment I’d made … which was, after all, pretty big for a kid of seventeen."

Enjoyable read so far, but the voice of the narrator seems like a much younger kid, maybe 10-12 years old, not 17.

And so it may be. I dare say, sir, our whole country is this way. A fine green valley. A pleasant copse in the springtime. Dig its soil, and not far beneath the daisies and buttercups come the dead. And I don’t talk, sir, only of those who received Christian burial. Beneath our soil lie the remains of old slaughter.

Trata de ganar tiempo para pensar qué hacer. Le dice:
—Pasá y tomate unos mates que estoy dormido. Dame unos minutos que me termine de despertar.

—Mamá está loca.
Lo dice con voz de niña, haciendo pucheros y moviendo el dedo índice en círculos a la altura de la sien. Estebancito la mira y se ríe. Todo le parece muy cómico. Dice:
—El juego se llama «Cadáver Exquisito», ¿querés jugar?

Un operario agarra la cabeza y la lleva a otra mesa donde le saca los ojos, que coloca sobre una bandeja con un cartel que dice «Ojos».

"El Señor Urami no mira a la gente. La mide. Siempre sonríe y él siente que, cuando el Señor Urami lo observa, en realidad está calculando cuántos metros de piel puede sacar en limpio si lo sacrifica, lo cuerea y lo descarna ahí mismo."

Lydia could vividly recall her mother talking about Sam’s arrest in her librarian voice, a furious whisper that could freeze an open flame.

JOJO
The other kids called me a coward. And
my papa, they say he makes desserts
instead of fighting. But I know he’s
still fighting, for you, for me, and for Germany.

ADOLF
Oh, of course he is! And he is also
making nice desserts, nothing wrong
with that. My God, his custard tarts are
the only thing keeping up morale
at the front.

KLENZENDORF (CONT’D)
These are very special and expensive
weapons, you should never be without
them. And DO NOT try to stab each
other.

FINKEL
No stabbing! Or you’ll die. From blood
loss.

EXT. STEPS. WESTMINSTER ABBEY

MAN A: Isn’t that the Prince Regent, only son of Queen Victoria, heir to the throne and a man whom I’m told consorts with prostitutes, standing over there?

MAN B: Yes.

Relationships, easy to get into, hard to maintain. Why are they so hard to maintain? Because it’s hard to keep up the lie! ’Cause you can’t get nobody being you. You got to lie to get somebody. You can’t get nobody looking like you look, acting like you act, sounding like you sound. When you meet somebody for the first time, you’re not meeting them. You’re meeting their representative! - Chris Rock

She answered that Jews were never looking to steal Germanic blood, that Jews married Jews — any Jew's parents would've been hurt if a son or daughter wished it otherwise...Fresh fuel for an explosion: Christianity and Islam developed from Judaism! The best of all was when she claimed that Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the twelve disciples were Jewish! I didn't know what lies she'd been fed, but set her straight on that one

She wasn’t dressed like a Murder detective. You learn by osmosis, as soon as you set your sights on the job, that you are expected to look professional, educated, discreetly expensive with just a soupçon of originality. We give the taxpayers their money’s worth of comforting cliché. We mostly shop at Brown Thomas, during the sales, and occasionally come into work wearing embarrassingly identical soupçons.

Platt had ambled into the living room, poorly shaven, in tweeds and rough Donegal sweater, like some gloomy fisherman in a Synge play

Mrs. Barbour broke up these visits if they dragged on too long, on the grounds that I got tired easily, but also—I suspect—because she couldn’t handle people like Cinzia and Kika monopolizing her living room for indefinite periods of time. After forty-five minutes or so she would come and stand quietly in the door. And if they didn’t take the hint, she would speak up and thank them for coming—perfectly polite, but in

I walked in and shut the door to his office, which isn’t how I’d ever imagined my editor’s office would look. I craved big oak panels, a window pane in the door—marked Chief—so the cub reporters could watch us rage over First Amendment rights. Curry’s office is bland and institutional, like the rest of the building. You could debate journalism or get a Pap smear. No one cared.

a monster at nearly 250k words! I love stories set in the distant past where you feel an immediacy or some intimate connection with the characters in recognizable situations, but also gain an appreciation for the extraordinary depth of the human experience, a sense of how different their lives were.

The opening was interesting, but the author relies on shortcut tropes, glossing over the alien aspects of the setting

It was interesting, though, that the Tempest was coming after them. It felt good to know she’d hit the enemy hard enough to sting. Maybe it was just pride. Admiral Trejo angry that a pirate would dare act in his solar system. Or maybe the political officer had been close enough to someone high in command that this was a personal vendetta now. Or maybe they just really wanted their protein flavoring back.

The wedding was an intimate affair. The ceremony took place in the living room, performed by a local minister. Edna’s vast collection of Hummels served as witness.

Snap-together furniture, the kind you might find at Kmart or Bradlees, had been stained dark, feigning rich oak and mahogany and working about as well as a Las Vegas toupee. There were no school diplomas... just that phony nonsense people put up... One commemorated Flannery’s membership in the “International Wine-tasting Association.” Another ornately noted that he attended a “Long Island Legal Conference” in 1996.

The story so far is a riveting & twisty ride, but would be more compelling with a bit deeper exploration of the protagonist's glaring racial prejudices

...valuing unoriginality may actually be an original idea. Our peers and advertisers have taught us all to value originality. We express our individuality by purchasing mass-produced products. One of my friends expresses his originality by driving a bright yellow car; but he isn’t commuting to work on an elephant...But don’t blame Madison Avenue for the fact that we yearn to be original just like everyone else.