Metz's Perfection chronicles with lapidary precision one woman's climb back to happiness after not just a spouse's death, but also the shocking recognition that her life before that death was not what she had thought it was. The journey is a painful one, but Ms. Metz is much the stronger for having survived to recount it.

Nowadays anyone with a crap laptop and an Internet connection can sound their barbaric yawp, whatever it may be.

There are times with your friends when you just have to put their whole mess out of your mind for a while.

Maybe I needed to make like a potato, winnow myself down, be part of something that was not easy, just simple.

You can never have too much, butter.

People want to care about people. People look after each other, given the chance. ... I believe just believing in goodness generates a tiny bit of the stuff, so that being so foolish as to believe in our better natures, if just for a day, we actually contribute to the sum total of generosity in the universe.

But hard bitten cynicism leaves one feeling peevish, and too much of it can do lasting damage to your heart.