And it was too late. No one wants to believe something is too late, but it is always becoming too late, and then it is.

My first job was when I was about 12, cleaning houses in the afternoons for different elderly women in town. I hated it.

For years I did most of my reading on the F train between Brooklyn and Manhattan. I had long commutes, and I read tons of books on that train; I loved it.

Each of his son's had been his favorite child.

It’s just that I’m the kind of person,' Rebecca continued, 'that thinks if you took a map of the whole world and put a pin in it for every person, there wouldn’t be a pin for me.

Or maybe, he thought, returning to the boxes, it was part of being Catholic--you were made to feel guilty about everything

You have family", Bob said. "You have a wife who hates you. Kids who are furious with you. A brother and sister who make you insane. And a nephew who used to be kind of a drip but apparently is not so much of a drip now. That's called family".