Tracing the cause of his alienation and its manifold effects, Yates would speak of his mother with a scathing, obsessive hatred that sometimes brough… - Richard Yates

The aesthetic perfectionist, who spent hours slaving over a sentence

To find order in chaos - why, of course; that was what he'd wanted all his life. He had been born for this, for finding order in chaos, and all the wasted years has been a mistake. To find order in chaos; to find order in chaos.

"I see," she said. And when would she ever learn to stop saying 'I see' about things she didn't see at all?