We knew that Cecilia had killed herself because she was a misfit, because the beyond called to her, and we knew that her sisters, once abandoned, felt her calling from that place, too.

Whenever we got a glimpse, their faces looked indecently revealed, as though we were used to seeing women in veils.

The trees like lungs filling with air. My sister, the mean one, pulling my hair.

The world, a tired performer, offers us another half-assed season.

He knew a lot about his grandparents - and perhaps he feels he's been endowed with abilities to go into people's heads who are long dead - but, to a certain extent, he's making it up.

It's often said that a traumatic experience early in life marks a person forever, pulls her out of line, saying, "Stay there. Don't move.

They were bound for college, husbands, child-rearing, unhappiness only dimly perceived- bound, in other words, for life.