There's something ugly about the flawless.
This world can only give me reminders of what I don't have, can never have, didn't have for long enough.
The loneliness of another can be shocking when it lays itself bare without warning.
What molds us is what maims us.
The ornament of beauty, Shakespeare wrote, is suspect. And he was right. But beauty itself, unadorned and unaffected, is sacred, I think, worthy of our awe and our loyalty.
Visitation Street is urban opera writ large. Gritty and magical, filled with mystery, poetry and pain, Ivy Pochoda’s voice recalls Richard Price, Junot Diaz, and even Alice Sebold, yet it’s indelibly her own.