Right now she is reading Virginia Woolf, all of Virginia Woolf, book by book-She is fascinated by the idea of a woman like that, a woman of such bril… - Michael Cunningham

There is still that singular perfection, and it's perfect in part because it seemed, at the time, so clearly to promise more.

"Mizzy has wandered into the garden. Carole looks contemplatively at him, says, "Lovely boy."

"My wife's insanely younger brother. He's one of those kids with too much potential, if you know what I mean."

"I know exactly what you mean."

Further details would be redundant. Peter knows the Potters' story: the pretty, unstoppable daughter who's tearing through her Harvard doctorate versus the older child, the son, who has, it seems, been undone by his good fortune; who at thirty-eight is still surfing and getting stoned by way of occupations, currently in Australia."

It's stores, it's the whole thing, all that shit everywhere, 'scuse me, that merchandise, all those goods, and ads screaming at you from all over the place, buy buy buy buy buy, and when somebody comes up to me with big hair and gobs of makeup on and says, `Can I help you?`, it's all I can do not to scream, `Bitch, you can't even help yourself.