Riyah’s Reviews > Evenings and Weekends > Status Update

“She swam as far out as she could, and then turned around to tread water and stare at the land. The shore seemed so far.
The people were specks. She could talk to them if she wanted.
She could do so many things with the rest of her day. She was alone in an enormous city, and there were dozens of shapes her life might take. She swam towards the shore, bought a beer, and fell asleep on the sand.”

“love isn't a feeling. It's not the butterflies in your tummy you get in the giddy early days of a relationship. The butterflies don't last, he says. Love is something you deliberately decide to do through repeated actions of care. Love is something you make.”
I do love a wedding

“He doesn't know what words might help her feel loved, cared for & comforted, If she can't believe she's not going to die, he doesn't know what words might help her believe everything will be fine anyway. She'll still be loved, looked after & incomparably adored, & everyone will be with her until the very end, & they'll hold her hand, & they'll never forget her, & they'll all be together again someday.” I am sad

“She feels full up with love for her friend Phil. She misses him. She wants to be back with him in the shopping centre at sixteen, seeing the future as enormous and free.”

“There's only so much air.
She needs to save it for herself. She wishes that air were more abundant than this. She doesn't want to ration so carefully, but she needs to breathe too.”

“It's no longer deniable that Phil is in love with him.
He's in love in that way which is simple and enormous.
He's in love in a way that soars, swells and bowls him over. It's like there's a spongy substance expanding in his chest. It causes a painful, forceful, pleasurable ache. It is lovely, and also, it is too much to take.
But also, he thinks, life is short.”

PHIL AND KEITH SAY I LOVE YOU!!

“And here was Phil's body and mind: shy of intense experiences. Seizing up & shutting down on the precipice of deep, vivid feeling. When faced with something hot, un-known, frightening, or desirable, every part of Phil's body and mind would usually implore him to reject it, no matter how much he wanted it, no matter how much it would have improved his life and love and experience of the world to have it.”

I thought the party would be crazier full of more revelations and confessions but it felt more dazed and tired and empty like looking for something to happen and wanting affection and affection reciprocated but not feeling it, feeling nothing really
Maybe that is exactly the significance

“… wanting the city to transform her into a mythical bird.
Enormous, gorgeous, blue and pink plumage. She had wanted for the city to change her so profoundly that she may as well have grown wings.
She says that she loves to sing. She says she loves to have a laugh and loves to have a drink as well.”
SAME GIRL
I MISS KARAOKE

“It's within her power to put her head on his chest.The touching doesn't have to be incidental. It could be deliberate, passionate, full of love.

And imagine how good it would feel. She could turn onto her side and kiss him. I love you, she could say, I'm happy to be here, or I love you, she could say, I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. By saying these things, these things could come true.”

“Their wordlessness is a symptom of their intimacy, so attuned to each other that they are beyond verbal language altogether. Barely saying a word, these two are understood.”
I LOVE ROSALEEN AND STEVE