Michael’s Reviews > 1984 > Status Update

“Tragedy, he perceived, belonged to the ancient time, to a time when there were still privacy, love, and friendship, … . His mother's memory tore at his heart because she had died loving him, when he was too young and selfish to love her in return, and because somehow, he did not remember how, she had sacrificed herself to a conception of loyalty that was private and unalterable.”