Commonwealth
by Ann Patchett
On This Page
Description
"The acclaimed, bestselling author--winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize--tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families' lives. One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly--thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families. Spanning five decades, show more Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them. When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another. Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together"-- "Commonwealth is the story of two broken families and the paths their lives take over the course of 40 years, through love and marriage, death and divorce, and a dark secret from childhood that lies underneath it all"-- show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
BookshelfMonstrosity These literate family sagas follow American Catholic families through the decades. Commonwealth portrays two families that break apart and come back together in new combinations, while the drama in After This stems from a changing world.
LAKobow Several families and the way their actions are intertwined.
Member Reviews
The story begins with the christening party of Franny, the second daughter of Fix and Beverly Keating. Bert Cousins comes to the party uninvited and, since everyone is drunk, ends up kissing Beverly, setting in motion the events that shape the Keatings’ and Cousinses’ lives thereafter. The narrative is a collection of anecdotes, really, told from the perspectives of the four parents and six children, but each reflects on the past in a way that eventually illuminates the whole story. These are ordinary lives, touched at times by tragedy but mostly filled with reflections and moments like those that make up most ordinary lives, but through Patchett’s magical touch, they add up to something poignant and meaningful.
This is a story about stories, particularly family stories, and how our lives are made up of these stories we tell and who we tell them to, and how these stories construct meaning for our lives. It’s astonishing to me how Patchett elevates such ordinary family stories into something quite extraordinary. show less
“This was theshow more
deal of taking her father to chemo when none of the doctors spoke in terms of a cure: this was the time she had, these were all the stories she was going to get. It was why she and Caroline took turns flying out to Los Angeles, because they’d never been with him for very long. It was to give Marjorie a break because it was Marjorie who did all the work, but more than anything it was to have a chance at the stories he was going to take with him.”
This is a story about stories, particularly family stories, and how our lives are made up of these stories we tell and who we tell them to, and how these stories construct meaning for our lives. It’s astonishing to me how Patchett elevates such ordinary family stories into something quite extraordinary. show less
Kisses are consequential in Ann Patchett’s books. I remember Bel Canto opening with a kiss, a kiss everyone remembered even if they did not see it. In Commonwealth everyone will be affected by that kiss, even if they did not see it. Commonwealth opens with a christening party to celebrate Franny (Frances), the second daughter born to Fix (Francis) and Beverly Keating. Albert Cousins shows up uninvited, crashing a party of someone he does not know in order to avoid the noise and bother of his own wife and three, soon to be four, children. He is immediately attracted by Beverly’s extraordinary beauty and inexplicably kisses her. More inexplicably, she kisses him back.
Well, we know what happens next. The modern blended family and what show more that means is Patchett’s métier. Commonwealth tells the story of the Keatings and the Cousins, Beverly and Albert marry, forcing his four children and her two children into a new family of summer siblings who bond during joyous and dangerous escapes from parental supervision and scrutiny. Some people might even say parental neglect, but I am a fan of letting kids play in the woods and lakes without hovering parents.
There are moments when we think we know where the story is going, but then we will be surprised. The building of tension and its release, sometimes by the narrative flowing into the life of another member of this family, these several siblings and parents whose stories retell events from different perspectives, redefining the idea of narrative and story by exposing how what really happened is unknowable because what we think happened is more important.
There is so much depth to this novel that it is hard to understand how she got it into a little over 300 pages. There are so many lives whose stories are told, sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely. There is so much of the artistry of writing on display as well. For example, oranges are almost totemic, appearing again and again. Trees, blossoms, slices, juice, and cocktails, oranges are everywhere. Then, the structure of the novel, set off by parties at the beginning and the end, Franny’s Christening Party that introduced Bert and Beverly to each other, fracturing their families and Beverly’s Christmas Eve Party that Franny attended, a night that sparked her memories of what she lost and what she gained from her summer siblings and stepfather.
I loved this book. The story is quite ordinary, really. There are so many families who are amalgams of broken marriages, families who shift boundaries throughout the year. Summer siblings and winter strangers. Even stranger, these step-siblings share one parent while the other parent is almost always unknown, unseen, a mystery. The modern family is often a assemblage of moving parts and Patchett captures this reality beautifully.
The real magic though is how her stories flow. Our window into the family story changes as the narrative focuses on this parent, that child or the other child without sharp divisions. It is almost magical how smoothly the narrative may go from an event that seems to close out one character’s story to smoothly retelling events years early that make that person the center of the narrative for a time. The story goes from person to person, past to present and past again, but with such natural shifts that it feels like a stream of many consciousnesses. Streaming consciousness is something Patchett does well and there is a scene of someone trying to meditate for the first time that is all-too-real and so very funny.
There is a logical or factual flaw that annoyed me. One of the children suffered from allergies and always carried Benadryl in case of exposure. Benadryl just does not work fast enough and is not effective enough. With a serious allergy, at that time, he would have carried an epinephrine inhaler. In the story, he relied on Benadryl and they had epinephrine and a syringe that had been left at home. Auto-injectors had been invented, but were not approved for sale. It’s a small thing, but an annoying weakness in the story.
This is a story of family, and families are sometimes funny, sometimes annoying, sometimes tragic and heartbreaking. But as with most families, it is full of love at the foundation.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/commonwealth-by-ann-patch... show less
Well, we know what happens next. The modern blended family and what show more that means is Patchett’s métier. Commonwealth tells the story of the Keatings and the Cousins, Beverly and Albert marry, forcing his four children and her two children into a new family of summer siblings who bond during joyous and dangerous escapes from parental supervision and scrutiny. Some people might even say parental neglect, but I am a fan of letting kids play in the woods and lakes without hovering parents.
There are moments when we think we know where the story is going, but then we will be surprised. The building of tension and its release, sometimes by the narrative flowing into the life of another member of this family, these several siblings and parents whose stories retell events from different perspectives, redefining the idea of narrative and story by exposing how what really happened is unknowable because what we think happened is more important.
There is so much depth to this novel that it is hard to understand how she got it into a little over 300 pages. There are so many lives whose stories are told, sometimes directly, sometimes obliquely. There is so much of the artistry of writing on display as well. For example, oranges are almost totemic, appearing again and again. Trees, blossoms, slices, juice, and cocktails, oranges are everywhere. Then, the structure of the novel, set off by parties at the beginning and the end, Franny’s Christening Party that introduced Bert and Beverly to each other, fracturing their families and Beverly’s Christmas Eve Party that Franny attended, a night that sparked her memories of what she lost and what she gained from her summer siblings and stepfather.
I loved this book. The story is quite ordinary, really. There are so many families who are amalgams of broken marriages, families who shift boundaries throughout the year. Summer siblings and winter strangers. Even stranger, these step-siblings share one parent while the other parent is almost always unknown, unseen, a mystery. The modern family is often a assemblage of moving parts and Patchett captures this reality beautifully.
The real magic though is how her stories flow. Our window into the family story changes as the narrative focuses on this parent, that child or the other child without sharp divisions. It is almost magical how smoothly the narrative may go from an event that seems to close out one character’s story to smoothly retelling events years early that make that person the center of the narrative for a time. The story goes from person to person, past to present and past again, but with such natural shifts that it feels like a stream of many consciousnesses. Streaming consciousness is something Patchett does well and there is a scene of someone trying to meditate for the first time that is all-too-real and so very funny.
There is a logical or factual flaw that annoyed me. One of the children suffered from allergies and always carried Benadryl in case of exposure. Benadryl just does not work fast enough and is not effective enough. With a serious allergy, at that time, he would have carried an epinephrine inhaler. In the story, he relied on Benadryl and they had epinephrine and a syringe that had been left at home. Auto-injectors had been invented, but were not approved for sale. It’s a small thing, but an annoying weakness in the story.
This is a story of family, and families are sometimes funny, sometimes annoying, sometimes tragic and heartbreaking. But as with most families, it is full of love at the foundation.
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/10/29/commonwealth-by-ann-patch... show less
“Did you ever want to be a writer?” “No,” she said, and she would have told him. “I only wanted to be a reader.”
“Half the things in this life I wish I could remember and the other half I wish I could forget.”
A christening party, one Sunday afternoon, in southern California. Copious amounts of gin are consumed, leading to an illicit kiss. This brief encounter, in the kitchen, sets off a chain-reaction, breaking apart two families, and bringing them together again, with pieces missing or askew.
Loosely, based on Patchett's own tumultous childhood, the novel spans five deacades, looking closely at the lives of all six children and the parents. Yes, some are dysfunctional, groping their way to an uncertain future and show more others are more sure-footed. Unlikely friendships evolve among the siblings and some end up, hopelessly out of reach.
This book caught me by surprise, with it's depth, sense of humor and uncanny insight, into the human condition. And of course, the prose is delicious.
Patchett's work seems to be divisive, among readers, including this one but that leaves me somewhat baffled, because I think she is one of the best American writers working today. show less
“Half the things in this life I wish I could remember and the other half I wish I could forget.”
A christening party, one Sunday afternoon, in southern California. Copious amounts of gin are consumed, leading to an illicit kiss. This brief encounter, in the kitchen, sets off a chain-reaction, breaking apart two families, and bringing them together again, with pieces missing or askew.
Loosely, based on Patchett's own tumultous childhood, the novel spans five deacades, looking closely at the lives of all six children and the parents. Yes, some are dysfunctional, groping their way to an uncertain future and show more others are more sure-footed. Unlikely friendships evolve among the siblings and some end up, hopelessly out of reach.
This book caught me by surprise, with it's depth, sense of humor and uncanny insight, into the human condition. And of course, the prose is delicious.
Patchett's work seems to be divisive, among readers, including this one but that leaves me somewhat baffled, because I think she is one of the best American writers working today. show less
“She couldn't follow all the lines out in every direction: all the people to whom she was by marriage mysteriously related.” —
Ann Patchett, “Commonwealth”
If a character in Ann Patchett's “Commonwealth” (2016) can't keep the members of her own family straight, pity the poor reader. But that is the point of this wonderful novel: Families are complicated.
That confused character is Franny, the novel's main character, if there is one. She is a baby at her own christening party when the novel opens, a mature woman well into her 50s when it ends at another family party. The chapters jump around from here to there, finally giving a picture of an American family as complicated as any of them.
At that christening party an uninvited show more guest named Albert Cousins shows up with a bottle of gin, a most unsuitable christening gift. Bert only wanted an excuse to get away from his own house and his own family on a Sunday afternoon. Soon other alcohol is brought to the party, guests drink too much and by the end Bert is kissing Beverly, Franny's beautiful mother, and an affair begins that leads to the breakup of both families.
The six children from the two families often share time together because of custody arrangements. But then new marriages crumble, leading to more divorces, more stepparents and an ever more complicated family.
As if things weren't complicated enough, Franny, in her 20s, has an affair with a prominent novelist, Leo Possen, who is looking for an idea for his next book. Franny's family story becomes the plot for this novel, which is also called “Commonwealth.” The book complicates her family even more as members start reading it. Years later it is turned into a movie, making everything still worse.
Franny feels guilty for her unplanned role in bringing embarrassment to her own family, just as she is sorry for all the trouble that resulted from that kiss at her christening party. And yet she thinks, too, of all the good that resulted. So it goes with families. Bad marriages result in good children. Youthful indiscretions lead to mature wisdom. Negatives sometimes become positives, and vice versa.
Families are complicated. show less
Ann Patchett, “Commonwealth”
If a character in Ann Patchett's “Commonwealth” (2016) can't keep the members of her own family straight, pity the poor reader. But that is the point of this wonderful novel: Families are complicated.
That confused character is Franny, the novel's main character, if there is one. She is a baby at her own christening party when the novel opens, a mature woman well into her 50s when it ends at another family party. The chapters jump around from here to there, finally giving a picture of an American family as complicated as any of them.
At that christening party an uninvited show more guest named Albert Cousins shows up with a bottle of gin, a most unsuitable christening gift. Bert only wanted an excuse to get away from his own house and his own family on a Sunday afternoon. Soon other alcohol is brought to the party, guests drink too much and by the end Bert is kissing Beverly, Franny's beautiful mother, and an affair begins that leads to the breakup of both families.
The six children from the two families often share time together because of custody arrangements. But then new marriages crumble, leading to more divorces, more stepparents and an ever more complicated family.
As if things weren't complicated enough, Franny, in her 20s, has an affair with a prominent novelist, Leo Possen, who is looking for an idea for his next book. Franny's family story becomes the plot for this novel, which is also called “Commonwealth.” The book complicates her family even more as members start reading it. Years later it is turned into a movie, making everything still worse.
Franny feels guilty for her unplanned role in bringing embarrassment to her own family, just as she is sorry for all the trouble that resulted from that kiss at her christening party. And yet she thinks, too, of all the good that resulted. So it goes with families. Bad marriages result in good children. Youthful indiscretions lead to mature wisdom. Negatives sometimes become positives, and vice versa.
Families are complicated. show less
I wanted to like this book. I wanted to love this book! It's the story of a blended family over the decades of the children's lives, with various marriages, divorces, births, and one very tragic death as the centerpiece. In the last chapter, one of Patchett's characters comments about the difficulty of keeping a large cast of characters straight in her head and this appears to be a conscious nod to that very challenge in reading this book. But it wasn't just that most of the characters never developed into the terrain of the memorable; it's that the work it took to try to keep the characters straight (which kids were born to Bert and Teresa? Was it Beverly and Fix who had the christening party at the beginning of the novel?) wasn't show more rewarded. I understand that this very issue is part of Patchett's point. And I came to like Franny (it was her christening party) but I never rarely cared about the first-world problems this ever-shifting family faced, even though the tragedy of one child's death is hardly trivial.
My impression was that Patchett rushed her writing, almost like she had a publication deadline or something. She could have taken another 75 pages and then, instead of telling me that a character was "the quiet one" or "the bossy one," she could have shown me that, could have made me feel it. Which brings me to my most central reaction to the novel: Patchett had a great story to tell but at no point in the entire novel did she evoke an emotional reaction in me. A novel with a primary LT tag of "family" should make me feel something. This one failed to do so.
I'm giving it 2.5 stars, my rating for "average." It probably deserves more than that. show less
My impression was that Patchett rushed her writing, almost like she had a publication deadline or something. She could have taken another 75 pages and then, instead of telling me that a character was "the quiet one" or "the bossy one," she could have shown me that, could have made me feel it. Which brings me to my most central reaction to the novel: Patchett had a great story to tell but at no point in the entire novel did she evoke an emotional reaction in me. A novel with a primary LT tag of "family" should make me feel something. This one failed to do so.
I'm giving it 2.5 stars, my rating for "average." It probably deserves more than that. show less
All the stories go with you, Franny thought, closing her eyes. All the things I didn't listen to, won't remember, never got right, wasn't around for. All the ways to get to Torrance.
This is a novel about two ordinary families, tied together by divorce and remarriage, who are messed up in ordinary ways. What makes this book so extraordinary is Patchett's writing, which is so perfect as to fade into invisibleness, never getting in the way of this story, and her compassion and interest in every member of these two families.
Each chapter reads like a short story, complete unto itself, and joined together, the chapters tell the story over several decades, beginning with the christening party where Bert Cousins first meets Beverly Keating, a show more meeting that will eventually result in six children spending summers together largely unsupervised, not naturally drawn together, but connected by proximity and shared experience in a way that will bond them through their adult lives.
I'm not drawn to family sagas and I'm glad I had no idea what the book was about before beginning, or I would have put off reading it. All I knew, opening the book to the first chapter, was that people were losing their minds over this book. This book is wonderful; that's all you need to know about it before you start. Enjoy. show less
This is a novel about two ordinary families, tied together by divorce and remarriage, who are messed up in ordinary ways. What makes this book so extraordinary is Patchett's writing, which is so perfect as to fade into invisibleness, never getting in the way of this story, and her compassion and interest in every member of these two families.
Each chapter reads like a short story, complete unto itself, and joined together, the chapters tell the story over several decades, beginning with the christening party where Bert Cousins first meets Beverly Keating, a show more meeting that will eventually result in six children spending summers together largely unsupervised, not naturally drawn together, but connected by proximity and shared experience in a way that will bond them through their adult lives.
I'm not drawn to family sagas and I'm glad I had no idea what the book was about before beginning, or I would have put off reading it. All I knew, opening the book to the first chapter, was that people were losing their minds over this book. This book is wonderful; that's all you need to know about it before you start. Enjoy. show less
Another excellent and thought-provoking novel by Ann Patchett.
"Commonwealth" is such a perfect title. It's Virginia, and it also reflects the family the stepkids have made. It's them against their parents--no resentment, lots of sneaking and having a great time. And these 6 kids have made their own family, despite only spending weeks to months together each year.
But it's not just the kids, it's the exes. There is not a lot of hate in here. The cheated-on ex helps out the son of the man who is now married to the first man's wife. The now-adult daughters of the woman who helped break up two marriages check in on the ex-wife of their stepdad--at their stepbrother's request. This describes real life--the Keating and Cousins families make it show more all work. But Patchett also shows, with Beverly's third husband's kids, that it doesn't always work this way--though maybe because their mother died when they were grown, so they don't know her nearly as well as they might have?
Yet everyone carries a bit of guilt over a huge event (no spoilers) that was no one's fault and really could never have been prevented--and though they all know it, even those that were kids, they all naturally feel horrible. Even this feels real. It makes one wonder if this IS Commonwealth from the story. show less
"Commonwealth" is such a perfect title. It's Virginia, and it also reflects the family the stepkids have made. It's them against their parents--no resentment, lots of sneaking and having a great time. And these 6 kids have made their own family, despite only spending weeks to months together each year.
But it's not just the kids, it's the exes. There is not a lot of hate in here. The cheated-on ex helps out the son of the man who is now married to the first man's wife. The now-adult daughters of the woman who helped break up two marriages check in on the ex-wife of their stepdad--at their stepbrother's request. This describes real life--the Keating and Cousins families make it show more all work. But Patchett also shows, with Beverly's third husband's kids, that it doesn't always work this way--though maybe because their mother died when they were grown, so they don't know her nearly as well as they might have?
Yet everyone carries a bit of guilt over a huge event (no spoilers) that was no one's fault and really could never have been prevented--and though they all know it, even those that were kids, they all naturally feel horrible. Even this feels real. It makes one wonder if this IS Commonwealth from the story. show less
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
ThingScore 92
...spans over 50 years, and the stories of how these children move uncertainly into adulthood — and how their parents adjust to the misfortunes that accrue — are painfully beautiful. (I went from bristling to weeping at 3 a.m.) Escaping the cage of your childhood can be one of the sublime miracles of growing up, though it sometimes requires more tools than the average jailbreak.
added by charl08
a compelling novel, full of characters who ring true.
added by charl08
Patchett sucker-punches you, but leaves you feeling you had it coming – whether for underestimating her, or her characters, or humanity, is hard to say.
In particular, Commonwealth is one of the most discerning novels about siblings I can recall. One pair of stepsiblings share an equivocal bond: “In that sense the two of them had been a team, albeit a team neither one of them wanted to be show more on.” show less
In particular, Commonwealth is one of the most discerning novels about siblings I can recall. One pair of stepsiblings share an equivocal bond: “In that sense the two of them had been a team, albeit a team neither one of them wanted to be show more on.” show less
added by charl08
Lists
Female Author
1,235 works; 67 members
Best 21st Century Books (So Far)
670 works; 86 members
Top Five Books of 2016
795 works; 229 members
Best Family Stories
241 works; 22 members
Southern Fiction
212 works; 52 members
Top Five Books on LibraryThing
24 works; 7 members
Female Protagonist
1,056 works; 56 members
Top Five Books of 2018
802 works; 265 members
Top Five Books of 2017
757 works; 230 members
Contemporary Fiction
109 works; 7 members
Kirkus Starred Fiction Reviews of Books Published in 2016
63 works; 3 members
Bitter Southerner Summer Reading Roundup
198 works; 8 members
Indie Next Picks
196 works; 4 members
Writers as Characters in Fiction
120 works; 19 members
Books Read in 2016
4,666 works; 197 members
Books Read in 2020
4,379 works; 124 members
Books Set in Virginia
5 works; 3 members
Books Read in 2022
5,164 works; 113 members
Allie's List of Books I Want To Read
93 works; 1 member
To Read
617 works; 7 members
Books Read in 2018
4,360 works; 110 members
Alphabetical Books
211 works; 3 members
2024-2025 Ezra Klein Guest Recommendations
213 works; 5 members
Author Information
33+ Works 54,926 Members
Ann Patchett was born on December 2, 1963. She received the Orange Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2002 for her novel Bel Canto. Her other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician's Assistant, and State of Wonder. She has also written several nonfiction works including Truth and Beauty: A Friendship, The Getaway show more Car, The Bookshop Strikes Back, and This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Ann's title's Commonweatlth and The Patron Saint of Liars made the New York Time bestseller list. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Distinctions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- Orange amère
- Original title
- Commonwealth
- Original publication date
- 2016 (1e édition originale américaine, HarperCollins Publishers) (1e édition originale américaine, HarperCollins Publishers); 2019-01-02 (1e traduction et édition française, Lettres anglo-américaines, Actes Sud) (1e traduction et édition française, Lettres anglo-américaines, Actes Sud)
- People/Characters
- Frances "Franny" Xavier Keating Mehta; Albert Cousins; Francis Xavier "Fix" Keating; Beverly Keating Cousins Dine; Caroline Keating Wharton; Tom Keating (show all 32); Betty Keating; Teresa Cousins Chen; Calvin Cousins; Holly Cousins; Jeanette Cousins; Albert "Albie" John Cousins; Lomer; Bonnie; Joe Mike; Wallis; Leon "Leo" Ariel Posen; Fode; Dayo; Ariel Posen; Natalie Posen; Eric; Marisol; Astrid; Eugene Wharton; Nick Wharton; Marjorie Keating; Ravi Mehta; Amit Mehta; Kumar Mehta; Jack Dine; Jim Chen
- Important places
- Los Angeles, California, USA; Torrance, California, USA; Arlington, Virginia, USA; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Brooklyn, New York, New York, USA; Amagansett, New York, USA (show all 8); Santa Monica, California, USA; Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland
- Epigraph*
- /
- Dedication
- to Mike Glasscock
- First words
- The christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin.
- Quotations
- Half the things in this life I wish I could remember and the other half I wish I could forget.
The priest, whose mind was wandering like the Jews in the desert, tried to focus again on his sermon
You could see just a trace of the daughter there, the way she held her shoulders back, the length of her neck. It was a crime what time did to women.
When the six of them were together they looked more like a day camp than a family, random children dropped off on the same curb.
Caroline was a lot angrier than the rest of them. It was there in her voice all the time. Then again, it could have been that Cal was the angriest and his anger just manifested itself in different ways.
Heinrich had always thought there was something German about her, the yellow hair, the clear blue ice of her eyes, but Americans were never Germans. Americans were mutts, all of them.
Franny had her arm around Leo Posen's waist as she steered the course between the dark icebergs of her tables.
Now here he was, as thin and as quiet as a knife.
But when the toilets stopped flushing and the showers went dry, well, that was intolerable. Everyone agreed the water bill had to be paid on time.
It was after Cal died that her mother finally lost her freckles, as if even they had abandoned her.
Without the buzzing overhead lights the sunlight fell down the walls and across the linoleum tiles, collecting in watery pools around their feet.
Albie's bicycle was an amalgamation of so many different replacement parts it could no longer rightfully be called a Schwinn.
When he arrived at his destination, he lifted his bike onto his shoulder like it was his younger brother and carried it with him into the elevator.
He was a living skeleton with his black tattoos and his thick black braid, like Death himself had come for them, ready to ride them out on his handlebars.
All those stories go with you, Franny thought, closing her eyes. All the things I didn't listen to, won't remember, never got right, wasn't around for.
She picked it up, even though nothing good ever came from answering the phone in the middle of the night.
By the time the plane landed at Charles de Gualle she had aged twenty years. Prosecutors should insist the trials of murderers and drug lords be held in economy class on crowded transatlantic flights, where any suspect would ... (show all)confess to any crime in exchanges for the promise of a soft bed in a dark, quiet room. Off the plane, stiff and slow, she shuffled into the river of life: the roll-aboard suitcases trailing behind the cell-phone-talkers like obedient dogs, everyone walking with such assurance that it never occurred to her not to follow them.
She eased her heels out of the backs of her shoes even though she knew it was a mistake. Her feet would expand like bread dough and she would never be able to cram them back in.
Teresa looked back and forth between Bert and the pretty ring on her hand and thought she must be emitting light from her entire body she loved him so much.
"For the vast majority of the people on this planet," Fix had said, "the thing that's going to kill them is already on the inside."
Franny, half asleep on top of the bedspread beside her husband, was unable to map out all the ways the future would unravel without the moorings of the past. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)She had needed to keep something for herself.
- Blurbers
- Freud, Esther
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 4,569
- Popularity
- 3,165
- Reviews
- 204
- Rating
- (3.86)
- Languages
- 9 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 43
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 9