Tate’s Reviews > The Bell Jar > Status Update

"I thought the most beautiful thing in the world
must be shadow, the million moving shapes and cul-de-sacs of
shadow. There was shadow in bureau drawers and closets and
suitcases, and shadow under houses and trees and stones, and
shadow at the back of people’s eyes and smiles, and shadow,
miles and miles and miles of it, on the night side of the earth."

"I saw the days of the year stretching ahead like a
series of bright, white boxes, and separating one box from
another was sleep, like a black shade. Only for me, the long
perspective of shades that set off one box from the next had
suddenly snapped up, and I could see day after day after day
glaring ahead of me like a white, broad, infinitely desolate
avenue."