Richard Derus’s Reviews > The Falls of the Wyona: A Novel > Status Update

Are you ever prepared for the worst?

There are many things we don't understand in life until it's almost too late. Vince figured one out early. Now the changes will ring in. It being the 1940s, I don't expect them to be good.

That's it, right here is where the *awful* truth about the way people go tribal makes me want to puke my guts out.

And even though this is the 1940s, very very little has changed.

Oh, Ardo. How cruel we are as young people. You knew and you said it anyway.

At my very advanced age, the very few things that can make me wince about my past are the moments when I was cruel to those who didn't earn it.

The most beautiful, the most brutal, the most sacred, the most evil.

When you know, you're just going to feel it all...and "all" really means all. All.

It was Yule, whose enchantments struck deeper even than the Nativity Story.
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My mother's fake christianity vanished completely at Yule. Every inch was decorated, the tree had a literal thousand lights, the ornaments are with my right now and treasures I'll have no matter how long I live. This sums that beautiful memory up.

Now the price comes due: Clarence knew about Glen and Vince; probably was the same, only about Andy; now the Falls mythology is enriched and the whole town sees that there's been An Accident. Such a perfect small-town moment. Perfect.

Time to get this sucker done...been too long!

Also brutal but in a different way; and Vince being Vinny every so often for no obvious reason is workin' my nerve.

That was harrowing. So many very bad memories.