Max’s Reviews > Intermezzo > Status Update
Max
is on page 270 of 448
Yes, the world makes room for goodness and decency, he thinks: and the task of life is to show goodness to others, not to complain about their failings. Bending down, he takes Alexei’s body into his arms, cradling him like the little puppy he once was, and when he stands up again Alexei begins to lick his ear and jaw.
— Sep 22, 2025 03:26AM
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Max’s Previous Updates
Max
is on page 437 of 448
Picture them all there together. To imagine also is life: the life that is only imagined. Clatter of saucepans, steam from the kettle. Even to think about it is to live. Hard cold wind blowing in from the sea, blowing his coat back, raising white hackles on the river. Nothing is fixed.
— Oct 11, 2025 01:40PM
Max
is on page 421 of 448
What can life be made to accommodate, what can one life hold inside itself without breaking.
— Oct 09, 2025 01:24PM
Max
is on page 420 of 448
How to live up to all this: which seems at times the only question. Feels he has at once too much power and too little, enough to make a mess of everything, not enough to sort it out.
— Oct 07, 2025 02:29PM
Max
is on page 409 of 448
She knew of course what he had been thinking. Always knows. Maybe we both thought we could get away with it. To be loved, yes, for no reason, with no imaginable reward. Sudden proliferation of grace. It probably just makes everything worse. Which in a way it does, worse, more complicated. Tethering him down into the world, barring the emergency exits. Stay and suffer. I promise. Of course.
— Oct 06, 2025 01:56PM
Max
is on page 381 of 448
To hear his name in her voice, he closes his eyes. The name has become so precious to him, from the way it sounds in her mouth.
— Sep 30, 2025 11:02AM
Max
is on page 317 of 448
Let me suffer, please. To love just these few people, to know myself capable of that, I would suffer every day of my life.
— Sep 25, 2025 01:21PM
Max
is on page 304 of 448
The demands of other people do not dissolve; they only multiply. More and more complex, more difficult. Which is another way, she thinks, of saying: more life, more and more of life.
— Sep 24, 2025 02:11PM
Max
is on page 258 of 448
Sylvia too was becoming emotional, he could see that, and she put her arms around him, saying he deserved to be happy, he deserved all the happiness in the world. And the feeling between in that moment, wasn’t that true? Doesn’t the feeling between people have a truth of its own?
— Sep 21, 2025 07:18AM
Max
is on page 234 of 448
For a moment the screen darkens, connecting, and then the signal drops. Call unsuccessful. What does he have to tell him anyway. I just want to say, I’m on your side. I know I’ve never done anything to help you, Ivan, but in principle, in spirit. I’ve been on your side all along.
— Sep 18, 2025 01:50PM
Max
is on page 197 of 448
Wanting to say and hear the words again, that can never again be said or heard. To return to the house once more, and not find it dark and empty, but airy and bright again with open windows. To spend an afternoon together, playing with the dog, eating dinner, doing nothing, only being together, just once more.
— Sep 16, 2025 02:10PM
