Ben Eastman’s Reviews > Strangers and Sojourners: A Novel > Status Update

"The rejection of suffering results, not in joy, but in depression. Depression, I have come to see these past few months, is the reaction of my inner self to a lie, to a false concept of the self, to self-delusion. It breeds a profound discouragement."


That first line especially is so good! Joy is not mere happiness, it is a deeper more eternal state. And suffering does not detract from it, quite the opposite.

There hasn't been a lot going on so far, but I am so enthralled. Anne's swirling of ideas, trying to learn who and what God is, has been mesmerizing.

And then, another artist named Peter appears out of nowhere. What poetry!

"I loathe examinations. They prove simply nothing, only that it is possible, after all, to mould another into the shape of one's whims."

I think every student has felt this sentiment many times.