I think it's awesome that the author grew up in Michigan and went to U of M Ann Arbor. As far as my feelings on the book, I felt like the book could have been written in a better way, more storytelling. But the author is primarily a journalist, so it makes sense that I read that way. Also, I'm sure most people would think that the story / autobiography I inevitably want to write would read this way, too.
"In my family, achievement was redemption."
"From age sixteen to thirty-one [are] the worst years to be off and on in love with anybody."
"If I was capable of loving someone it would be you, but I'm not so I don't."
"The hidden perk of punishing: it left a trail that could be easily followed if someone from the past wanted to find you. Or was that the hidden peril?"
"That was the problem lately - everything led back to what was missing."
"Five years was the crucial point in a union - when the sheets you got as wedding presents were wearing thin. It was time to decide whether to buy new sheets, live with each other's lunacy forever and have a baby, or give up and go back to playing musical beds." - Isadora Wing
"At forty-two, he had chosen a student almost half my age, as if twenty years later he could still only handle half of me."
"That was my curse, I remembered everything."
"'He's ten years older. When he dies, you and I will get married in our old age.' ... He could only use the M-word from the safest distance possible."
"That was the problem with marriage: nothing stayed neat or where you expected it."
"The one benefit of middle age was being to tired for bullshit."
"So what if I sounded petty? I was."
"You said when I left for Harvard I'd get one more gold star on my forehead, but still be empty inside. You were right."
"I'd settle for feeling the way I used to feel at sixteen, when everything was still possible."
"After each break up, I couldn't help but feel abandoned. Until I found another boyfriend - who eventually abandoned me as well. Until I met Aaron the workaholic, who managed to marry and abandon me simultaneously."
"Breakups are worse than death. When a mate passed away, you were left with good memories and sympathy. When a lover dumped you, you were expected to get over it in a month. Then, for the rest of your days, you were faced with the threat of seeing him happier with someone else."
"Was that what I wanted from the men I used to love - permission to have what they couldn't give me?"
"Had I broken his heart first? No wonder I distorted the truth."
"I was flattered; I still had the power to at least ruin his schedule."
"[Marriage] was all timing. When you're ready, you're ready. You go for your fantasy. If that doesn't work, you try someone available."
"I was a bad wife for wanting to go to Claire's party more than I wanted to greet [my husband after a three week long work trip]. My mother would have been waiting at home for my father, sweating over a brisket. No, my mother wouldn't be waiting, she'd never let him out of her sight for that long."
"Years of therapy trying to shrug off the overwhelming pressure to be like our mothers. Or was it guilt that we didn't have to be?"
"That was the problem with honesty, it didn't end. You always needed to keep going further."
"No wonder Richard inflated his success. He had to bolster himself up, no one else in his life did."
"There were three ways [people] could [change]: through therapy, the death of a parent, or healthy love."
"Richard and Sally had only dated for a few years two decades before; their hate was longer and more passionate than their love."
"He had also just watched Ally McBeal and said I reminded him of her. I found the character totally neurotic, but at least she was skinny. Did he remember me skinny? Or neurotic?"
"Stop apologizing for your life."
"It seemed I was much more apt to be completely heartbroken when I was at my thin weight. Conversely, I had happily pranced down the aisle at my heaviest. So when I gave up all the dieting and exercising, there was room to fit in happiness."
"This was exactly what I detested about marriage. I could not make one simple decision about my own apartment, taxes, or womb without getting his sign-off."
"More comfortable playing shrink than siren."
"Aaron spoke more slowly than Joshua, his words more deliberate. His manner was older, he knew who he was. Yet that meant he couldn't change. Men my age were more malleable."
"Whoever said weddings were romantic was single and/or in the wedding business."
"I felt awkward, like an actress reprising a role I'd walked out on decades ago, swearing I'd never return."
"Every lover is a reaction against your last." - Erica Jong
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