Tara’s Reviews > Wolf Hour > Status Update

“Jack London, as I’m sure you know, was an author as well as a journalist,” I say. “He said that fiction is truer than fact. And that the best thing you could do with the facts was to make them look like fiction.”

“And that’s what you intend to do?”

“I’m going to try, at least,” I say. “It’s probably the only thing that gives any meaning.”

“Why are we made that way?Why fight for what’s already been lost?”
“Hm.The teachings of evolution maybe? If we just swallow our losses and allow the powers of evil free rain, the same thing will just happen over and over again.So we fight for a future in which we might, just possibly, get another chance”
“That’s very naïve”
“Naive, or optimistic. At least better than apathy and quiet resignation”

“What do you think of love?”

“What do I think of love? I think” —he scratches himself behind his ear— “that just occasionally, in between all the little loves, a big one comes along. But it doesn’t necessarily look all that big on the radar, so you need to have your wits about you. And that sometimes a little love can grow, given the right kind of care and nourishment.”
🥰

I nod. “We used to go drinking in Dinkytown. Me, him and Monica, the love of his life. Sometimes Monica brought along a friend who I think they hoped I would fall for. I never met anyone with such faith in the existence of deep and lasting love. I don’t mean a naïve faith, but well . . . an overwhelming conviction that it existed, despite the negative experiences of the majority.”
2/2

“You told me you remember Mike as happy,” says Bob. “ I never got to see that side of your cousin.”
1/2

“The city — and the world — needed naive optimists more than it needed resigned realists.”
❤️‍🩹

Liza wanted to give him a hug, but she resisted.
Bob looked at Liza standing there in the doorway. He wanted to give her a hug but resisted.
“Sleep well,” he said, amd with a short, clumsy bow he turned and headed back towards his car.
“You know what, Bob Oz?”
He stopped and turned. “What?”
“You’re not a wolf in sheep’s clothing. You’re a sheep in wolf’s clothing.”
💗

“Kay closed her eyes. She needed someone else. She needed Bob Oz. But when she opened them again, it was still Olav Hansen standing there.”

“The strange thing was that later, when she looked back over her childhood, she couldn’t remember a time when she had ever felt closer to her father than she had that night, when they stood there, face-to-face, each with their own despair.”