It was kind of her to say, but he did do harm. I doubt my sister will ever marry: If she’s sad or upset or angry, she needs to be alone – she fears a man dismissing her womanly tears.
I'd never noticed him anywhere near the pool, but he knew my swimwear cold, which was flattering and alarming at the same time.
I was hoping Betsy Nash would disappear. Literally. She was so insubstantial, I could imagine her slowly evaporating, leaving only a sticky spot on the edge of the sofa. But she lingered, eyes darting...
I thought being home might do you good, but … I forget sometimes parents aren’t always … good for their kids.
I suppose it's not a compromise if only one of you considers it such, but that was what our compromises tended to look like. One of us was always angry.
I stared back—cows are the few animals that really seem to see you.
I spent the rest of my day picturing how I’d kill Amy. It was all I could think of: finding a way to end her. Me smashing in Amy’s busy, busy brain. I had to give Amy her due: I may have been dozing t...
I have one memory that catches in me like a nasty clump of blood. Marian was dead about two years, and my mother had a cluster of friends over for afternoon drinks. One of them brought a baby. For hou...
I got secretly furious, spent ten minutes just winding myself up—because at this point of our marriage, I was so used to being angry with her, it felt almost enjoyable, like gnawing on a cuticle: You...
I felt no particular allegiance to the town. This was the place my sister died, the place I started cutting myself. A town so suffocating and small, you tripped over people you hated every day. People...
I don’t mean this to sound cruel, Tish began, but it seems like part of your heart can never work if you don’t have kids. Like it will always be shut off. I agree, Katie said. I didn’t really become a...
I don't feel like Nick's wife. I don't feel like a person at all: I am something to be loaded and unloaded, like a sofa or a cuckoo clock. I am something to be tossed into a junkyard, thrown into the...
His fingers tugged at the towel. I held tight to it, hard as a dishrag on my breasts, and shook my head.What's this? he whispered into my ear.This is the unforgiving light of morning, I whispered back...
He turns around, and when he sees me standing there, he looks scared. That’s something useful. Because I’m not going to let him go. He may think he was lying when he said all those nice things to lure...
Habían insistido que me quedara..., insistido con la misma urgencia con la que en otros tiempos se habían arrojado sobre el camarero para arrebatarle la cuenta de la cena: la hospitalidad entendida co...
Fuckyoufuckyoufuckyou, I chanted,
For so many years, my husband has lauded the emotional solidity of midwesterners: stoic, humble, without affectation! But these aren’t the kinds of people who provide good memoir material.
For so many years, my husband has lauded the emotional solidity of midwesterners: stoic, humble, without affectation! But these aren’t the kinds of people who provide good memoir material. Imagine the...
For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men - friends, coworkers, strangers - giddy over these awful pretender women, and I'd want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating...
El amor hace que quieras ser un hombre mejor, vale, de acuerdo. Pero a lo mejor el amor, el verdadero amor, también te autoriza para ser simplemente el hombre que eres.