Ryan > Recent Status Updates

“I’m alive, she thinks. Made or not, I’m alive. I have value. We all have value.” Pg.145

“…the good days were worst of all, because there were always just enough of them for you to forget they were merely a countdown.” Pg327 sadly relatable

“The good days were never good, they were a lie, they never lasted.” Pg325

“A violent man is a sickness for all around him.’” Pg324

“Because they were right, the old women in the supermarket, Joar was a poor child. But not because of his mom. She was all that was good in the world. Definitely not an idiot.”

“But did she have poor judgment? Do bears shit in the woods?” Pg301 again with the author creating a tone of understanding and venerating a parent who allows or causes their child to suffer

I hate when authors put a big focus on religion (especially their own beliefs) into their books, as is the case with this one. Just one small example from the book: “If the minister heard it, he pretended not to have, and if Heaven existed, God was probably prepared to overlook it too.” Pg269

The author tends to provide beautiful sentiments in characters’ dialogue but at the same time it hardly ever feels like authentic dialogue. Too fortune-cookie-loaded positivity, too much philosophical, metaphorical back and forth that just feels like what it is: pre written lines, not something that feels like real conversation. Beautiful and deep but completely scripted.

A couple times the author has written that it’s practically impossible to be a good parent on the heels of describing truly terrible parenting. I’m not sure if he’s making excuses for bad parents or simply trying to capture how kids can love parents and see them as good even when they’re not.

I love antiheroes so this part of the book I liked…”Ted said that an antihero was a good person who sometimes did bad things…” pg167

“He knew that happiness existed, but not for him.” Pg167

“Art is what we leave of ourselves in other people.” Pg134

“Being a parent is so strange, all our children’s pain belongs to us, but so does their joy.” Pg124 interesting the author can write that while simultaneously venerating a mother who allows a child to be abused.

It bothers me that the author tries to venerate a mother who stood by and did nothing while her child gets abused…regularly at that.

Following up on the mom who allowed her son and herself to be abused, a character says, “‘She sounds like a good mom.’” Another character replies, “‘Yes, she really was remarkable at growing things, everything smelled so good around her. She managed to help everything…survive.’” Pg.118