Haven Kimmel: The Solace of Leaving Early

She felt her heart sway a bit in her chest. How lovely and fortunate for him that he was able to be happy with the little bit he was afforded in this narrow life! Oh, for a moment, how she yearned to be one of them. The moment passed. (p87)

Haven Kimmel: The Solace of Leaving Early

“Now someone from outside would look at that, at those rustic people, some of them playing washboards or brooms, I don’t understand what they’re doing, plunked down in the middle of a country fair, and they’d see something wonderful, something to be devoutly wished for. But if they moved here and were part of this community, they’d begin to see that band ironically, because really there’s no other way to see, right?”

“Irony is our best hope, yes.”

“And the moment you see something ironically, you’re neither in it nor is it in you. You don’t belong to the town and nothing in the town belongs to you. One is either perfectly present and entirely innocent of one’s own contentment (which is remarkably like not being content) or one is aware, and thus distanced, and no longer at home or happy. Am I wrong?”

AnnaLee stood and picked up her basket. “I’ll have to think about it. But you’ll stay, right? You’re not going to flee because your vision is ironic? Because I can see you moving from place to place, each one more isolated or bizarre than the last, in some desperate attempt to meet what is ultimately more real than your ability to perceive it.”

Amos opened the door for her, smiling his closed-mouth smile. “We’re all doing the best we can, aren’t we?” he asked AnnaLee, as she stepped down onto the slate flagstones.

“Yes, we are,” she said, and walked into the darkness of the alley. (p58)

Haven Kimmel: The Solace of Leaving Early

Are you going to justify your skepticism with the Protestant Revolution, or have you consulted the patriarchy and gotten a thumbs-down? (p205)