I know! I've been reading in silence. And reading in fistfuls, whatever time I can grasp at. But my final was yesterday, and I had time to breathe, and drink in words today. Starting from the beginning, these are a few of the ones I have loved:
"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering."
Beautiful.
"In the years that followed, the boy became a man who became invisible. In this way, he escaped death."
Poignant.
"There was no reason for our laughter, but we began to giggle and the next thing we were rocking in our seats and howling, howling with laughter, tears streaming down our cheeks. A wet spot bloomed in my crotch and that made us laugh harder, I was banging at the table and fighting for air, I thought: Maybe this is how I'll go, in a fit of laughter...."
I love the beauty of the imagery with moments of laughter sprinkled in. I like how she develops the characters in a way that makes them seem like they live just down the street. That you can smell their Chinese takeout from your back porch. That you would want to leave a light on, just so they would know you were there, or turn it off so it wouldn't rob them of sleep.
I thought a lot about the lines: "...because to live in an undescribed world was too lonely." About how we live our lives essentially alone. I mean, yes, there are people around, but there is an inner world, and inner life constantly occurring. Not every thought is or could be expressed. And even if it were, whose to say that my knowledge of sorrow or joy is the same as yours? We experience these things internally. Language is a way to make us not feel so alone.
I may be biased, but I think the written word bridges the gap from one solitary and internal life to another more than spoken word. Much of conversation is small, surface, does not scratch where the heart itches most, does not provide comfort for a roaming soul. But written words. They leak into the mind and drip into the consciousness. The tide rises within to meet the message: You are not alone. I think because we experience written word internally, it has the capacity to make us aware that--in fact someone has also fallen in love, lost their love, felt invisible, wet themselves laughing...and on and on.
And you? What have you loved about this book?
What do you think about spoken word vs. written word?
